[ cover story] Hearth & Soul… An Architect Appreciated Pritzker Prize 2009

2009 Pritzker Jury Panel Lord Palumbo – Chairman Alejandro Aravena Rolf Fehlbaum Carlos Jimenez Juhani Pallasmaa Karen Stein Martha Thorne

Presented in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 29 May

The jury for the Pritzker Prize this year made an intriguing choice in , thought of by many as a singular talent, and an ‘architect’s architect’. Like the 2002 laureate, , and unlike such others as or , Zumthor goes to some lengths to avoid the limelight, carving out a peculiar and, to many, an enviable niche as an individualistic practitioner thriving on the fringes of the building professions. He realises very few projects, takes whatever amount of time he feels is appropriate on the design process, and obsesses about the details… and everything else. Those who have visited his buildings virtually always remark on their thoroughness, on their absolute consistency and depth of thought. With his miniscule practice of 15 or so staff, tucked far off the beaten track in rural Switzerland, Zumthor lives the professional life many dream of – a kind of romantic fantasy of the genius artist living in his ivory tower, with a queue of wishful clients waiting patiently at its base. Romantic or not, this is rather close to reality with Zumthor… he turns down more work than he accepts, lives and practises in an idyllic mountain redoubt (in a superb building of his own creation) and works to an unusual degree on his own terms – to which his clients willingly agree (they have little choice). What about this practice is not to envy? hinge 167_47 But what are we to make of the work itself? The Pritzker jury cited a couple of his most famous buildings, including the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, which it called, “a startling contemporary work, but also one that is completely at ease with its many layers of history”. Indeed, it might be said that Zumthor is oddly capable of creating a formal language that is separated, if not divorced, from time. Unquestionably contemporary, his architecture seems somehow disconnected with the entirety of whatever the current ‘discussion’ is centred on, as if occupying a parallel context of formal thinking, one perhaps accessible only to Zumthor himself, or at maximum a handful of aficionados fortunate enough to ‘get it’. This obviously doesn’t square with the deep and widely held respect he commands (or indeed with winning a Pritzker Prize!), but it is precisely this apparent contradiction that fascinates the critical world. It is likely the man himself would scoff at such ponderings: his buildings are built for himself and for those who use them, not for critics, and by all accounts they are embraced profoundly as such. Is this quality Photography by Walter Mair and Pietro Savorelli Photography by Walter

Thomas J Pritzker: Brother Claus Field Chapel Wachendorf, Germany “A master architect admired by his 2007 The chapel, dedicated to a Swiss Saint, and commissioned and largely constructed by a farmer and his wife, is located colleagues for work that is focussed, on one of their fields above the village. The interior of the chapel room is formed out of 112 tree trunks, configured like uncompromising and exceptionally a tent. Layer after layer of concrete, each layer 50cm thick, was poured and rammed around the tent-like structure. After determined… Zumthor’s buildings have a smouldering fire was kept burning for three weeks inside this log tent, what remained of the wood was removed from a strong, timeless presence. He has the concrete shell. The chapel floor is covered with lead. a rare talent of combining clear and rigorous thought with a truly poetic dimension, resulting in works that never cease to inspire.” hinge 167_48 hinge 167_49 of ‘otherness’ – almost ethereality – the intended result of a clever talent, something deliberately sought by Zumthor and his building clients? Is it the consequence of precisely his insistence on working by his own methods, take it or leave it? Does the very ‘difficulty’ of producing architecture with a master who is averse to compromise go some way to ensuring a masterwork?. Or is there something more profound occurring, something truly inherent to the buildings he makes, something like an interior essence that roots in a poetic soil – the kind of core the rest of us dream of reaching?

This latter, irksomely romantic, notion has adhered to certain architects over the ages, and probably always will. And there is a surface sympathy among some of them. One thinks of Louis Kahn, for instance, whose hushed, exquisitely crafted few buildings commanded a similarly exalted admiration. Murcutt, of course, is another. These practitioners were and remain hardly anonymous, even as they seemed to genuinely struggle with the idea of recognition. Certainly since the Vals Spa exploded onto the planet’s consciousness, Zumthor has lost any chance at invisibility; the building startled us and hypnotised us in an instant – as if someone had suddenly uncovered a vast preserved Roman city or Egyptian pyramid, intact

John Pawson:

“He has an amazing portfolio. It may be only a Photography by Helene Binet few, but how many good buildings do you need? If I could know only one living architect, it would be Art Museum Kolumba Zumthor. The thought, the materiality – his work is Cologne, Germany physically very pleasing and just gorgeous.” 2007 The Art Museum of the Cologne Archdiocese was to be a ‘living Todd Williams: museum’. The new building in the city centre rises from the ruins of the late Gothic Saint Kolumba Church. Its floor contains a large archaeological excavation site with the remains of previous “It’s about an individual’s sense of his role as an church buildings dating back to the 7th century. These givens led Zumthor to a building that provides seventeen galleries of architect. You have the sense that this is right, that this different proportions and with different lighting schemes on three is good. He’ll continue to be kind of a cult figure. His floors, with a total floor space of 1,750sq m. work is hard for people to understand. It’s his blessing and his burden.”

hinge 167_50 hinge 167_51 Photography by Walter Mair and Thomas Flechtner

Brad Cloepfil: “He is, unequivocally, the most important architect working today. He mines the realm of the spirit, of profound meaning. He works with Swiss Sound Box the visceral elements of building, Hanover, Germany which is extraordinarily rare in 2000 Taking the sustainability theme seriously, the Swiss Pavilion for the 2000 Hanover Expo contemporary architecture. His work was constructed out of 144km of lumber with a cross-section of 20 by 10cm, totalling 2,800sq m of pine from the Swiss forests, assembled without glue, bolts or nails, and only braced with steel cables, with each beam pressed down on the one below. After the Expo, is like a tuning fork in the chaos.” the building was dismantled and the beams were sold as seasoned timber.

hinge 167_52 hinge 167_53 and awesomely beautiful. In the flood Kunsthaus Bregenz of shared wonderment (and published Bregenz, Austria celebration) may have been lost the 1997 subtle irony of such excitement being caused by a monument to quiet and Although the competition brief called for a conventional provincial gallery, stillness… a health retreat devoted in time the museum evolved into a four-storey building, ushering the to, indeed seemingly oozing the administration, café and museum shop to a separate structure in front of essence of, tranquillity. It was instantly the museum. The museum is designed without windows, yet daylight is manifest the architect had produced everywhere. Etched glass shingles that refract the light before it enters that most clichéd grail of the art worlds, the building transmit the light horizontally into the interior. Zumthor placed a cavity on every floor to catch the light coming in from all four sides and the masterwork. Some ten years in exploited the ability of the etched glass to diffuse light; it strikes the glass the making, its owners can sleep ceiling and is deflected down into each gallery. peacefully in the knowledge that if ever the supply of stressed, overweight or simply repose-minded spa clients ever dwindles, the place will never go short of pilgrimaging architects.

Can architecture that seems to so consistently provoke such intense appreciation truly remain – for long – immune to the poison of recognition and fame? Can Zumthor persist in leaking out, slowly, steadily, sublime forms and spaces under the corrupting glare of superstardom, exactly when such an integral aspect of his achievement is the absence of gratuitousness or attention-seeking in it? Can you remain Photography by Helene Binet the quiet craftsman craving the silent seclusion requisite for concentration, when all around you are crowds (clients, students, critics, colleagues) clamouring for your reflected brilliance? We shall see. Interestingly, Zumthor himself doesn’t seem to suffer any paranoia

Luzi House Jenaz, Switzerland 2002

A no-frills private residence with a separate granny flat, or ‘Stoeckli’ as it is called in Switzerland, for a young couple with six small children. This spacious, expansive house with light-filled rooms is constructed completely of solid wood. It is a further development of the blockhouses typical for Jenaz, with large windows and large balconies full of flowers.

Photography by Walter Mair

hinge 167_54 about recognition; upon learning he’d won, he stated: “Being awarded the Pritzker Prize is a wonderful recognition of the architectural work we have done in the last 20 years. That a body of work as small as ours is recognised in the professional world makes us feel proud and should give much hope to young professionals that if they strive for quality in their work, it might become visible without any special promotion.”

Well, nothing like a Pritzker to take care of the promotion part…

It is strongly appealing, this idea that great architecture needs no help in finding its audience and, helter-skelter, becoming known. We like the idea of the artwork’s own naked quality earning it its value, without the aid of praise, critique, media attention, self-endorsements… even as we rush forward to do all that (writing about, giving awards). But Zumthor seems genuine in his absorption with the task of making buildings. And at the core of that task is a monumental search, one that probably immunises him somewhat from the distractions of external trivia, including the enjoyment of praise, because it is so difficult and because it has no end. Peter Zumthor is absorbed with the question of beauty. He has asked, “Does beauty have a form?” and said, “Once

Photography by Helene Binet

Paul Goldberger: “His work combines Louis Kahn’s mystical, quiet power with an almost Japanese restraint, and he exhibits a bit of Mies van der Rohe’s Thermal Baths extraordinary discipline as well… Vals, Switzerland Zumthor is the spiritual child of both… 1996 Zumthor’s most prominent project originated when the city of Vals acquired a bankrupt hotel complex in an attempt to rescue existing jobs. When brooding in the manner of Kahn, and a larger, new building with integrated thermal baths and new guestrooms proved too costly, the authorities opted for just the thermal baths. Zumthor’s load-bearing composite structure for the baths consists of solid walls of concrete and thin slabs of Vals gneiss broken and cut to size in pristine in the manner of Mies.” a quarry just behind the village. The thermal water comes from the mountain just behind the baths. Since completion, overnight stays in the village and the Hotel Therme have increased by about 45 per cent…

hinge 167_56 hinge 167_57 you start a phenomenological pursuit of beauty, of moments, you look at your Truog House personal life: ‘When do I experience Versam, Switzerland beauty? When do I have these moments 1994 of sensation of beauty? When do I feel this beauty?’” These are questions one Gugalun Farm’s manor house looks north, might assume all artists have asked, facing the moon (hence the name of the except that beauty has become a estate). To make the simple wooden house conundrum for modern architecture [we habitable in the future, an extension was built. It contains a kitchen, bathroom and are not qualified to talk about music or bedroom, and a modern hypocaust heating painting]. It is the elephant in the room, system. To create the space for the annex, so to speak. Zumthor’s readiness to take the late 19th-century kitchen at the back of it on, both explicitly and in his work, is the house, on the side of a mountain slope, somewhat rare in the profession. was demolished, while the entire 17th- century living room was preserved. A new Yet where else does one hope to find an roof connects the old and the new. answer to the question of why Zumthor’s spa, or his Bruder Klaus Chapel – in which he burned the interior timber structure of the concrete ‘teepee’ to douse it in the desired patina of death, or eternity – evoke emotional experiences of such potency? He is unafraid of what so many of his fellow architects fear: the latent ferocity of architecture’s lyricism; its possible transcendence to sublimity. His own engagement with Photography by Helene Binet the exalted force of the art may tread the path of much more immediate and tangible things – materiality, site, light, cultural context, even programme – but he knows where it’s headed, or at least where he hopes it is. And while no single architect’s entire oeuvre can possibly reach such heights, or even arrive at

Spittelhof Estate Biel-Benken, Switzerland 1996

A small residential estate on one of Basel’s most desirable locations, comprising two rows of terraced housing with gardens on the south side and a building with rental units (or ‘Kulm’ as Zumthor likes to call them), at the upper edge of a central green courtyard. The bedrooms face east towards a nearby forest, while the living rooms have a wide view to the west framing the hills. The Kulm contains five ground- floor apartments; the two upper floors have ten dwellings of different sizes, all with separate access stairs and entrances from the canopied forecourt. The buildings are designed to provide light-filled living rooms and the bedrooms are lined up, porch-like, along the facades.

Photography by Helene Binet hinge 167_58 Homes for Senior Citizens Masans, Switzerland 1993

The twenty-two flats of this residential development for the elderly are occupied by senior citizens still able to run their own households, but are happy to use the services of the neighbouring nursing home. From the kitchen windows, the residents overlook a large entrance porch. The sheltered balcony niches and the living room bay windows on the other side face west, up the valley, towards the setting sun. For this project Zumthor used traditional building materials such as tuff, larch, pine, maple, solid wood flooring and wooden panelling. Photography by Helene Binet

Photography by Helene Binet

Homes for Senior Citizens Masans, Switzerland 1993

The twenty-two flats of this residential development for the elderly are occupied by senior citizens still able to run their own households, but are happy to use the services of the neighbouring nursing home. From the kitchen windows, the residents overlook a large entrance porch. The sheltered balcony niches and the living room bay windows on the other side face west, up the valley, towards the setting sun. For this project Zumthor used traditional building materials such as tuff, larch, pine, maple, solid wood flooring and wooden panelling.

hinge 167_60 Photography by Helene Binet Zumthor Studio Haldenstein, Switzerland 1986

What was meant to be a conversion turned into a new studio house; Zumthor acquired an old farmhouse next door Protective Housing for Roman that received little sunlight, having been built onto the north side of a neighboring Archeological Excavations house, and decided to pull down the old Chur, Switzerland structure and replace it. The new wooden 1986 building – a reference to the barns, stables and workshops in the village, and a salute to the fellow architects in the Vorarlberg In the 4th century AD, Chur was the Roman capital of the province of region who had begun building new houses Curia. Archaeological excavations in the area now occupying a small of wood – now occupies the northern, amusement strip just off the historic town centre, have uncovered a and the garden the southern section of complete Roman quarter. The protective structures – wind-permeable the site. The studio contains two south- wooden enclosures – follow the outer walls of three adjacent Roman facing rooms: the upper one for working, buildings. The site’s display cases along the street skirt the protruding the ground-floor one with a fireplace, a foundations of the former house entrances. view of the garden and a small kitchen for entertaining. Today the latter room is used as a drawing studio.

Photography by Helene Binet hinge 167_62 hinge 167_63