Peter Zumthor: Thinking Architecture

Creating architecture that has a sensuous connection to life requires thinking that goes far beyond form and construction. Peter Zumthor writes about his motivation and his approaches to designing buildings that appeal to mind and heart in a variety of ways. He talks about memories as the basis of architectural moods and images, about how materials can take on poetic qualities, and about how architects succeed in creating atmospheres.

The constant interplay of feeling and understanding, which the star architect considers indispensable in designing, is also expressed in his texts. Zumthor's thoughts are associative and free, at the same time structured and systematic. In short, concise sentences with enormous density, he combines eloquence and poetry. The texts are based on lectures and essays that Zumthor wrote between 1988 and 1996.