Zumthor

In writing for Globescope, I wonder about the next story, who’s my favourite architect? What are my favourite projects? Who’s work is consistency excellent and pushes the boundaries? There’s all the usual incredible architects like Herzog & de Meuron or David Chipperfield or Neri & Hu but for some reason Swiss architect Peter Zumthor never seems to jump out like those other ‘profile’ architects do. And l am wondering why: his work is beautiful, crafted, expressive, consistent (over years) and l think the answer lies in the work. Like Peter Zumthor himself, his work has a restraint and modesty and in a world of people shouting for attention, Peter Zumthor stands in silence, letting the work do the talking.

Kolumba Art Museum, Cologne, Germany. 2007.

Born in 1943 and working from a studio in the Swiss Alps, Peter Zumthors’ practice was established in 1979. Unlike most architecture firms, Peter Zumthor has kept his practice small, not growing to meet demand but rather running his studio with the mindset of a sole practitioner. It’s not about more work, more staff, more money (or less) and more stress, it’s about a singular focus on the project. What is the best way to achieve the best outcome for the project? And in Peter Zumthors’ case, it’s to reduce distraction through less projects with more focus.

Peter Zumthor studio home, Swiss Alps.

His work is defined in three ways; firstly, expression of material and its texture. Zumthor allows the textures of the project to be expressed and the beauty of the materials to marry with the context and functional needs. The Therme Val baths in Graubünden, Switzerland supports this approach. With thermal waters from the earth, what better material to use than geology itself, stone. Stone and the cave like spaces support the purification and ritualistic qualities of the water as a rejuvenator; it’s almost baptism.

Therme Vals baths, Graubünden, Switzerland. 1996

Secondly, Zumthor’ work is diverse in its expression. His buildings always look different. It’s hard to pick a Zumthor building. Unlike Tadao Ando* whom mostly works in concrete and celebrates form, Zumthor’ works across a range of materials and his forms are entirely appropriate to the project itself; not a predetermined formal investigate. For the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, he ‘simply’ designs a pavilion (a low lying structure, part of landscape) using blacken timber that acts as shroud to the Piet Oudolf landscape inside.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London. 2011

The third and final quality defining Zumthor’ work is craft. His work is ‘crafted’ or constructed such that details and their construction are considered and are as much a part of the design as the overall form itself. This may seem like a no brainer, because all architects should detail their work beautifully but not all do; detail may not but be their (the architect) preoccupation. At the risk of getting in trouble, I would say Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG)* is not detail focused, but rather, the work seems more preoccupied with form and social connectivity. Zumthor’ work is exquisitely detailed, hero-ing the material and its expression. The Kolumba Art Museum in Cologne, Germany reinforces this idea. Bespoke silver grey bricks wrap the crumbling existing Gothic church, whilst a sun-lit drenched timber reading room offers a space for respite and reflection. Not surprising, one of Zumthor first jobs was as an apprentice to a carpenter and he later worked a conservation architect.

Reading room of Kolumba Art Museum, Cologne, Germany. 2007.

I’m conscious of my clumsy words so l will leave it to Peter Zumthor himself to explain his own work from ‘Thinking Architecture’. “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.”

SW.

Note *l love Tadao Ando’ and BIG’ work by the way, this comment is not a slight on their work but rather a contrast to someone like Peter Zumthor’ work. Don’t take my comment the wrong way, they are all amazing architects.