Peter Zumthor
Encyclopedia
Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect
and winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize
.
, the son of a cabinet-maker. He apprenticed to a carpenter in 1958 and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule
in his native city starting in 1963.
In 1966, Zumthor studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute
in New York. In 1968, he became conservationist architect for the Department for the Preservation of Monuments of the canton
of Graubünden
. This work on historic restoration projects gave him a further understanding of construction and the qualities of different rustic building materials. As his practice developed, Zumthor was able to incorporate his knowledge of materials into Modernist construction and detailing. His buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel.
Zumthor has taught at Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles
(1988), the Technical University of Munich
(1989), Tulane University
(1992), and the Harvard Graduate School of Design
(1999). Since 1996, he is professor at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
His best known projects are the Kunsthaus Bregenz
(1997), a shimmering glass and concrete cube that overlooks Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Austria; the cave-like thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland (1999); the Swiss Pavilion for Expo 2000
in Hannover, an all-timber structure intended to be recycled after the event; the Kolumba Diocesan Museum
(2007), in Cologne; and the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, on a farm near Wachendorf.
In 1993 Zumthor won the competition for a museum and documentation center on the horrors of Nazism to be built on the site of Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Mr. Zumthor’s submission called for an extended three-story building with a framework consisting of concrete rods. The project, called the Topography of Terror, was partly built and then abandoned when the government decided not to go ahead for financial reasons. The unfinished building was demolished in 2004. In 1999, Zumthor was selected as the only foreign architect to participate in Norway’s National Tourist Routes Project, with two projects, the Memorial in Memory of the Victims of the Witch Trials in Varanger, a collaboration with Louise Bourgeois
(completed in 2010), and a rest area/museum on the site of an abandoned zinc mine.
For the Dia Art Foundation
in Beacon, New York, Zumthor designed a gallery that was to house the “360° I Ching” sculpture by Walter de Maria
; though the project was never completed. Zumthor is the only foreign architect to participate, with two projects, the Memorial in Memory of the Victims of the Witch Trials in Varanger, a collaboration with Louise Bourgeois (to be completed in June), and a rest area/museum on the site of an abandoned zinc mine (completion date 2011). In November 2009, it was revealed that Zumthor is working on a major redesign for the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
. Recently, he turned down an opportunity to consider a new library for Magdalen College
, Oxford. He was selected to design the Serpentine Gallery
's annual summer pavilion with designer Piet Oudolf in 2011.
Currently, Zumthor works out of his small studio with around 30 employees, in Haldenstein
, near the city of Chur
, in Switzerland
.
in Berlin
. In 1996, he was made an honorary member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). In 1998, Zumthor received the Carlsberg Architecture Prize for his designs of the Kunsthaus Bregenz
in Bregenz, Austria and the Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland (see below). He won the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture in 1999. Recently, he was awarded Praemium Imperiale
in (2008) and the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2009).
—famed among architects for its evocative sequence of spaces and exquisite construction details—presents intriguing correspondences between Heidegger’s writing and Zumthor’s architecture.
Writing in his architectural manifesto, Thinking Architecture, Zumthor mirrors Heidegger’s celebration of experience and emotion as measuring tools. A chapter entitled “A way of looking at things” begins by describing a door handle:
Zumthor always emphasises the sensory aspects of the architectural experience. To him, the physicality of materials can involve an individual with the world, evoking experiences and texturing horizons of place through memory. He recalls places he once measured out at his aunt’s house through their sensual qualities. Zumthor’s Vals spa recounts the thinking he describes in his essay, making appeals to all the senses. The architect choreographs materials according to their evocative qualities. Flamed and polished stone, chrome, brass, leather and velvet were deployed with care to enhance the inhabitant’s sense of embodiment when clothed and naked. The touch, smell, and perhaps even taste of these materials were orchestrated obsessively. The theatricality of steaming and bubbling water was enhanced by natural and artificial light, with murky darkness composed as intensely as light. Materials were crafted and joined to enhance or suppress their apparent mass. Their sensory potential was relentlessly exploited with these tactics, Zumthor aimed to celebrate the liturgy of bathing by evoking emotions.
belief that architecture must be experienced first hand. His published written work is mostly narrative
and phenomenological.
“Thinking Architecture”
In this book Peter Zumthor expresses his motivation in designing buildings that speak to our feelings and understanding in so many ways and that possess a powerful and unmistakable presence and personality.
The book is illustrated throughout with color photographs by Laura Padgett of Zumthor's new home and studio in Haldenstein.
“Atmospheres”
Atmospheres is a poetics of architecture and a window into Peter Zumthor's personal sources of inspiration.
In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses.
Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him.
From the composition and “presence” of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.
In conclusion, Peter Zumthor has described what really constitutes an architectural atmosphere as "this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty...under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way."
“Peter Zumthor Therme Vals”
This is the only book-length study of this singular building, features the architect’s own original sketches and plans for its design as well as Hélène Binet’s striking photographs of the structure. Architectural scholar Sigrid Hauser contributes an essay on such topics as “Artemis/Diana,” “Baptism,” “Mikvah,” and “Spring”—drawing out the connections between the elemental nature of the spa and mythology, bathing, and purity.
Annotations by Peter Zumthor on his design concept and the building process elucidate the structure’s symbiotic relationship to its natural surroundings, revealing, for example, why he insisted on using locally quarried stone. Therme Vals’s scenic design elements, and Zumthor’s contributions to this book, reflect the architect’s commitment to the essential and his disdain for needless architectural flourishes. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=226061
“Seeing Zumthor”
Seeing Zumthor represents a unique collaboration between Zumthor and Swiss photographer Hans Danuser, containing Danuser’s images of buildings created by Zumthor. More than twenty years ago, in a milestone event of twentieth-century architectural photography, Danuser photographed, at Zumthor’s invitation, two buildings: the protective structure built for archaeological excavations in Chur and St. Benedict’s Chapel in Sumvitg. When first shown in exhibition, those photos ignited a lively debate that has been revived with a recent exhibition of Danuser’s photographs of Zumthor’s most famous work, the spa at Therme Vals. Seeing Zumthor collects these three important series of Danuser’s pictures and includes essays by leading art historians exploring the relationship between the two seemingly different disciplines or architecture and photography.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=406544
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
.
Early life
Zumthor was born in BaselBasel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, the son of a cabinet-maker. He apprenticed to a carpenter in 1958 and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule was the old name for an advanced school of applied arts in German-speaking countries. The first such schools were opened in Kassel in 1867 and Berlin and Munich in 1868 with other German towns following. They are now merged into universities....
in his native city starting in 1963.
In 1966, Zumthor studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in New York. In 1968, he became conservationist architect for the Department for the Preservation of Monuments of the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
. This work on historic restoration projects gave him a further understanding of construction and the qualities of different rustic building materials. As his practice developed, Zumthor was able to incorporate his knowledge of materials into Modernist construction and detailing. His buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel.
Career
Zumthor founded his own firm in 1979. His practice grew quickly and he accepted more international projects.Zumthor has taught at Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles
Southern California Institute of Architecture
The Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles , California, is an independent, nonprofit school offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture. It offers community design and outreach programs, and free public access to frequent exhibitions and lectures by leading...
(1988), the Technical University of Munich
Technical University of Munich
The Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan...
(1989), Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
(1992), and the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
(1999). Since 1996, he is professor at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
The Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio belongs to Università della Svizzera italiana. It's amongst the most prestigious schools of architecture in Europe.- Present faculty members :* Mario Botta* Quintus Miller* Valerio Olgiati* Jonathan Sergison...
His best known projects are the Kunsthaus Bregenz
Kunsthaus Bregenz
The Kunsthaus Bregenz presents temporary exhibitions of international contemporary art in Bregenz, capital of the Austrian Federal State of Vorarlberg...
(1997), a shimmering glass and concrete cube that overlooks Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Austria; the cave-like thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland (1999); the Swiss Pavilion for Expo 2000
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
in Hannover, an all-timber structure intended to be recycled after the event; the Kolumba Diocesan Museum
Kolumba
The Kolumba is an art museum in Cologne, Germany. It is located on the site of the former St. Columba church, and run by the Archdiocese of Cologne...
(2007), in Cologne; and the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, on a farm near Wachendorf.
In 1993 Zumthor won the competition for a museum and documentation center on the horrors of Nazism to be built on the site of Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Mr. Zumthor’s submission called for an extended three-story building with a framework consisting of concrete rods. The project, called the Topography of Terror, was partly built and then abandoned when the government decided not to go ahead for financial reasons. The unfinished building was demolished in 2004. In 1999, Zumthor was selected as the only foreign architect to participate in Norway’s National Tourist Routes Project, with two projects, the Memorial in Memory of the Victims of the Witch Trials in Varanger, a collaboration with Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
(completed in 2010), and a rest area/museum on the site of an abandoned zinc mine.
For the Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
in Beacon, New York, Zumthor designed a gallery that was to house the “360° I Ching” sculpture by Walter de Maria
Walter De Maria
-Early life and career:De Maria was born in Albany, California on October 1, 1935. He studied history and art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1953 to 1959. Although trained as a painter, De Maria soon turned to sculpture and began using other media...
; though the project was never completed. Zumthor is the only foreign architect to participate, with two projects, the Memorial in Memory of the Victims of the Witch Trials in Varanger, a collaboration with Louise Bourgeois (to be completed in June), and a rest area/museum on the site of an abandoned zinc mine (completion date 2011). In November 2009, it was revealed that Zumthor is working on a major redesign for the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
. Recently, he turned down an opportunity to consider a new library for Magdalen College
Magdalen College
Magdalen College or Magdalene College may refer to:*Magdalen College, Oxford - a constituent college of the University of Oxford*Magdalene College, Cambridge - a constituent college of the University of Cambridge...
, Oxford. He was selected to design the Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
's annual summer pavilion with designer Piet Oudolf in 2011.
Currently, Zumthor works out of his small studio with around 30 employees, in Haldenstein
Haldenstein
Haldenstein is a municipality in the district of Landquart in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Haldenstein is first mentioned in 1149 as Lanze. In 1370 it was mentioned as Lentz inferior.-Geography:...
, near the city of Chur
Chur
Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Recognition
In 1994, he was elected to the Akademie der KünsteAkademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In 1996, he was made an honorary member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). In 1998, Zumthor received the Carlsberg Architecture Prize for his designs of the Kunsthaus Bregenz
Kunsthaus Bregenz
The Kunsthaus Bregenz presents temporary exhibitions of international contemporary art in Bregenz, capital of the Austrian Federal State of Vorarlberg...
in Bregenz, Austria and the Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland (see below). He won the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture in 1999. Recently, he was awarded Praemium Imperiale
Praemium Imperiale
The Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
in (2008) and the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2009).
Zumthor and Heidegger
The Vals spaTherme Vals
Therme Vals is the hotel/spa complex in Vals, built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton in Switzerland.- History :In the 1960s a German property developer, Karl Kurt Vorlop, built a hotel complex with over 1,000 beds to take advantage of the naturally occurring thermal springs...
—famed among architects for its evocative sequence of spaces and exquisite construction details—presents intriguing correspondences between Heidegger’s writing and Zumthor’s architecture.
Writing in his architectural manifesto, Thinking Architecture, Zumthor mirrors Heidegger’s celebration of experience and emotion as measuring tools. A chapter entitled “A way of looking at things” begins by describing a door handle:
I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunt’s garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of waxed oak staircase. I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen[...].(1998:9)
Zumthor always emphasises the sensory aspects of the architectural experience. To him, the physicality of materials can involve an individual with the world, evoking experiences and texturing horizons of place through memory. He recalls places he once measured out at his aunt’s house through their sensual qualities. Zumthor’s Vals spa recounts the thinking he describes in his essay, making appeals to all the senses. The architect choreographs materials according to their evocative qualities. Flamed and polished stone, chrome, brass, leather and velvet were deployed with care to enhance the inhabitant’s sense of embodiment when clothed and naked. The touch, smell, and perhaps even taste of these materials were orchestrated obsessively. The theatricality of steaming and bubbling water was enhanced by natural and artificial light, with murky darkness composed as intensely as light. Materials were crafted and joined to enhance or suppress their apparent mass. Their sensory potential was relentlessly exploited with these tactics, Zumthor aimed to celebrate the liturgy of bathing by evoking emotions.
Literature
Zumthor's work is largely unpublished in part because of his philosophicalPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
belief that architecture must be experienced first hand. His published written work is mostly narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
and phenomenological.
“Thinking Architecture”
In this book Peter Zumthor expresses his motivation in designing buildings that speak to our feelings and understanding in so many ways and that possess a powerful and unmistakable presence and personality.
The book is illustrated throughout with color photographs by Laura Padgett of Zumthor's new home and studio in Haldenstein.
“To me, buildings can have a beautiful silence that I associate with attributes such as composure, self-evidence, durability, presence, and integrity, and with warmth and sensuousness as well; a building that is being itself, being a building, not representing anything, just being. The sense that I try to instil into materials is beyond all rules of composition, and their tangibility, smell, and acoustic qualities are merely elements of the language we are obliged to use. Sense emerges when I succeed in bringing out the specific meanings of certain materials in my buildings, meanings that can only be perceived in just this way in this one building. When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, when I try to plumb its depths, its form, its history, and its sensuous qualities, images of other places start to invade this process of precise observation: images of places I know and that once impressed me, images of ordinary or special places places that I carry with me as inner visions of specific moods and qualities; images of architectural situations, which emanate from the world of art, or films, theater or literature.”
“Atmospheres”
Atmospheres is a poetics of architecture and a window into Peter Zumthor's personal sources of inspiration.
In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses.
Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him.
From the composition and “presence” of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.
In conclusion, Peter Zumthor has described what really constitutes an architectural atmosphere as "this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty...under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way."
“Peter Zumthor Therme Vals”
This is the only book-length study of this singular building, features the architect’s own original sketches and plans for its design as well as Hélène Binet’s striking photographs of the structure. Architectural scholar Sigrid Hauser contributes an essay on such topics as “Artemis/Diana,” “Baptism,” “Mikvah,” and “Spring”—drawing out the connections between the elemental nature of the spa and mythology, bathing, and purity.
Annotations by Peter Zumthor on his design concept and the building process elucidate the structure’s symbiotic relationship to its natural surroundings, revealing, for example, why he insisted on using locally quarried stone. Therme Vals’s scenic design elements, and Zumthor’s contributions to this book, reflect the architect’s commitment to the essential and his disdain for needless architectural flourishes. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=226061
“Seeing Zumthor”
Seeing Zumthor represents a unique collaboration between Zumthor and Swiss photographer Hans Danuser, containing Danuser’s images of buildings created by Zumthor. More than twenty years ago, in a milestone event of twentieth-century architectural photography, Danuser photographed, at Zumthor’s invitation, two buildings: the protective structure built for archaeological excavations in Chur and St. Benedict’s Chapel in Sumvitg. When first shown in exhibition, those photos ignited a lively debate that has been revived with a recent exhibition of Danuser’s photographs of Zumthor’s most famous work, the spa at Therme Vals. Seeing Zumthor collects these three important series of Danuser’s pictures and includes essays by leading art historians exploring the relationship between the two seemingly different disciplines or architecture and photography.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=406544
Principal works
- 1983 Elementary school Churwalden, Churwalden, GraubündenGraubündenGraubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
, Switzerland. - 1983 House Räth, HaldensteinHaldensteinHaldenstein is a municipality in the district of Landquart in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Haldenstein is first mentioned in 1149 as Lanze. In 1370 it was mentioned as Lentz inferior.-Geography:...
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1986 Shelters for Roman archaeological site, ChurChurChur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1986 Atelier Zumthor, HaldensteinHaldensteinHaldenstein is a municipality in the district of Landquart in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Haldenstein is first mentioned in 1149 as Lanze. In 1370 it was mentioned as Lentz inferior.-Geography:...
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1989 Saint Benedict Chapel, SumvitgSumvitgSumvitg is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.-Geography:Sumvitg has an area, , of . Of this area, 24.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 26.8% is forested...
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1990 Art Museum ChurChurChur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1993 Residential home for the elderly, Masans, ChurChurChur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1994 Gugalun House, VersamVersamVersam is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.-Geography:Versam has an area, , of . Of this area, 16.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 70.6% is forested...
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1996 Spittelhof housing, Biel-BenkenBiel-BenkenBiel-Benken is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.-History:Benken is first mentioned in 1259 as Beinkon. It was also known as Benken maior to distinguish it from Biel which was known as Benken minor, Buelbenken or Benken...
, Basel, Switzerland. - 1996 Therme ValsTherme ValsTherme Vals is the hotel/spa complex in Vals, built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton in Switzerland.- History :In the 1960s a German property developer, Karl Kurt Vorlop, built a hotel complex with over 1,000 beds to take advantage of the naturally occurring thermal springs...
, ValsVals, SwitzerlandVals is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.-History:Archeological finds from the Bronze Age around the thermal baths and Tomül pass as well as Iron Age items on the slopes of the Valserberg indicate that this area was used before written history...
, Graubünden, Switzerland. - 1997 Art Museum Bregenz, BregenzBregenz-Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....
, VorarlbergVorarlbergVorarlberg is the westernmost federal-state of Austria. Although it is the second smallest in terms of area and population , it borders three countries: Germany , Switzerland and Liechtenstein...
, AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. - 1997 Topography of TerrorTopography of TerrorThe Topography of Terror is an outdoor museum in Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is located in Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS, the principal...
, International Exhibition and Documentation Centre, BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, partly built, abandoned, demolished in 2004. - 1997-2000 Swiss Pavilion EXPO 2000Expo 2000Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
, Hannover, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. - 1997 Villa in Küsnacht am Zürichsee KüsnachtKüsnachtKüsnacht is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland.-History:Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as de Cussenacho....
, Switzerland. - 1997 Lichtforum Zumtobel Staff, ZürichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland. - 1999 Cloud Rock Wilderness Lodge Moab.
- 2007 Bruder Klaus Kapelle
- 2007 KolumbaKolumbaThe Kolumba is an art museum in Cologne, Germany. It is located on the site of the former St. Columba church, and run by the Archdiocese of Cologne...
- Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum, CologneCologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
(Köln), Germany. - 2011 Steilneset Memorial, VardøVardøis a town and a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeast part of Norway.Vardø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The law required that all cities should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Awards
- 1987 Auszeichnung guter Bauten im Kanton Graubüunden, Switzerland.
- 1989 Heinrich Tessenow medal, Technische Universität Hannover, Germany.
- 1991 Gulam, European wiid-glue prize.
- 1992 Internationaler Architekturpreis für Neues Bauen in den Alpen, Graubünden, Switzerland.
- 1993 Best Building 1993 award from Swiss tc's '10 vor '10, Graubünden, Switzerland.
- 1994 Auszeichnung guter Bauten im Kanton Graubüunden, Switzerland.
- 1995 International Prize for Stone Architecture, Fiera di Verona, Italy.
- 1995 Internationaler Architekturpreis für Neues Bauen in den Alpen, Graubünden, Switzerland.
- 1996 Erich-Schelling-Preis für Architektur, Erich-Schelling-Stiftung, Germany.
- 1998 European Union Prize for Contemporary ArchitectureEuropean Union Prize for Contemporary ArchitectureThe European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture or Mies van der Rohe award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 'to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe'...
(aka Mies van der Rohe Award) for Bregenz Art Museum. - 1998 Carlsberg Architectural Prize.
- 2006 Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award.
- 2006 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in ArchitectureThomas Jefferson Medal in ArchitectureThe Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture is presented for notable achievement in design or for distinguished contributions to the field of architecture. The award has been made annually since its establishment in 1966. The award is granted jointly by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and...
, University of Virginia. - 2008 Praemium ImperialePraemium ImperialeThe Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
, Japan Arts Association - 2009 Pritzker PrizePritzker PrizeThe Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
External links
- Kunsthaus Bregenz
- Peter Zumthor Projects, Archicentral
- Visitor Details for the Vals Spa, Switzerland
- Architect Peter Zumthor photogallery at TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, 2009 - "Slideshow: The Pritzker Prize Winner," Sarah Williams Goldhagen, The New Republic, 16 April 2009
- Interview Between Peter Zumthor and Toni Hildebrandt