Space and Material@Arch

The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is the recipient of the 2009 Pritzker Prize, the highest recognition in architecture.

Robin Pogrebin writes: "He is not a celebrity architect — not one of the names that show up on short lists for museums and concert hall projects or known outside of architecture circles.

"He hasn't designed many buildings; the one he's best known for is a thermal spa in an Alpine commune.

"And he has toiled in relative obscurity for the last 30 years in a remote village in the Swiss mountains, out of the limelight and away from the crowd."

Photo: Gary Ebner

Brother Klaus Field Chapel, Wachendorf, Eifel, Germany (2007)

“He has conceived his method of practice almost as carefully as each of his projects,” said the citation from the nine-member Pritzker jury. "He develops buildings of great integrity — untouched by fad or fashion."

Photo: Walter Mair

The interior of the Brother Klaus Field Chapel."Declining a majority of the commissions that come his way," continued the citation, "he only accepts a project if he feels a deep affinity for its program, and from the moment of commitment, his devotion is complete, overseeing the project's realization to the very last detail."

Photo: Pietro Savorelli

Kolumba Art Museum of the Cologne Archdiocese, Cologne, Germany (2007)

Ms. Pogrebin writes: "His Kolumba Art Museum in Cologne, completed in 2007, rises out of the ruins of the late gothic St. Kolumba Church, destroyed in World War II.

"The Pritzker jury called the project 'a startling contemporary work, but also one that is completely at ease with its many layers of history.'"

Photo: Helene Binet

Thermal Bath Vals, Graubünden, Switzerland (1996)

"Perhaps the project most closely associated with the architect is the spa he designed at the Hotel Therme in the Alpine village of Vals, Switzerland, which was completed in 1996.

"Using slabs of quartzite stone that evoke stacked Roman bricks, Mr. Zumthor created a contemporary take on the baths of antiquity."

Inside the spa at Hotel Therme.

Photo: Helen Binet

Saint Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg, Graubünden, Switzerland (1988)"The Pritzker jury praised Mr. Zumthor's use of materials. 'In Zumthor's skillful hands, like those of the consummate craftsman, materials from cedar shingles to sandblasted glass are used in a way that celebrates their own unique qualities, all in the service of an architecture of permanence,' the citation said, adding, 'In paring down architecture to its barest yet most sumptuous essentials, he has reaffirmed architecture’s indispensable place in a fragile world.'"

Photo: Helene Binet

The interior of the Saint Benedict Chapel.

"The architect said his projects generally originate with materials. 'I work a little bit like a sculptor,' he said. 'When I start, my first idea for a building it is already with the material.

'I believe architecture is about that,' he added. 'It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.'"

Photo: Helene Binet

@Source from: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/13/arts/design/20090413_ZUMTHOR_SLIDESHOW_index.html