Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthor
Peter Zumthoris a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth26 April 1943
CountrySwitzerland
anywhere carefully depending projects work
I work anywhere between three and 10 years on a project, depending on the size. My lifetime is finite. Therefore, I have to look carefully at how many projects I want to put into my lifetime.
asks bought build calls four home money pay three vacation work
I can't be bought with money. If someone calls me and asks me to work for them for three or four years, and they'll pay me well to build their vacation home, I ask myself why I should work three or four years on something like that.
rejected
My first buildings, when I was about 30, were rejected for aesthetic reasons.
cruel history men seems wars women
If I look at history, it seems that most wars and most cruel things have been done by men and not by women.
running art father
The first 10 years of my professional life had only to do with running away from my father. He was a wonderful cabinet-maker, and me being the eldest son, I had to take over his shop, his profession and so on and so on. I tried to escape by going to art school and then going on to industrial design and then interior design.
museums bigs drag
Small museums are great. Big museums are a drag.
artist together architect
If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making - he is not an artist.
comforting done lines
The bottom line may be that my inventing buildings is, indeed, a very private kind of activity. But it's done to be shared. It is comforting and consoling. From the reactions I get I can see I'm not doing something strange.
people design arrogance
I design for the use of a building and the place and for the people who use it... the reputation for arrogance comes because when work is offered to me, I look whether I can find a genuine interest in quality.
commitment names together
I need a close contact to the client, whoever it is, and a commitment of the client to go out and do a process together. I want to do the best for him. I need his respect and his patience. I want to work with a sophisticated person who's interested in a good building and not in my name.
home hands years
I grew up in a craftsman's home, where things were done with our own hands. I did cabinetmaking for four years and I hated it.
letting-go order care
Architecture to me is whole. I cannot say I only care about this 25% and the other 75% I let go... it's just I want to work the way I want to work. In my shop, you can order certain things and other things you cannot. They are not available.
real quality paper
There is still a real need for good quality architecture, not paper architecture, but the real stuff.
thinking architecture
There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it,