Peter Zumthor Pritzker Architecture Prize
The Pritzker has become a reward to yourself. The jury has described as a "creator of places rather than just buildings," but Peter Zumthor (Basle, 1943) was a carpenter before architect. And that footprint is present in all its buildings. Even in non-wood. Son of a carpenter, studied design at Pratt Institute in New York before becoming an architect. There he became fascinated by the modern movement. And decided to repair their mistakes: build quality. And warmth.
With such baggage, from a post in charge of preserving historic monuments, and the will to root a rereading of the construction methods and traditional materials, with 46 years Zumthor signed the Chapel of St. Benedict in the valley of the Rhine. It was 1989 and the black and white image of a tiny building that earned the world-renowned hermit. Showing a more craftsman than intellectual architect. Continued to work without leaving their little town, Haldenstein, where she raised their three children. And after seven years to move again. By then, the Swiss-carpenter he told El Pais: "I'm just a carpenter who speaks the truth" - built with stone.
Termas de Vals (1996) in his country is building its most admired. The long-awaited union of quality craftsmanship and modern abstraction achieves these bathrooms need an exterior where the stone is cut as the bricks of the Roman baths, and a liturgical interior with natural light jets. Once again the unanimous recognition of critics and dealers (Zumthor is a loner, but has no detractors) again applauded the gesture of the Swiss.
However, he kept the other as the breadth: not far from the Alps, in Bregenz (Austria), was picking up the Art Museum of the city enveloped in a light curtain wall, translucent and fragmented, which seems to suspend the building the corner of a medieval city. This is obviously one of those centers that attract more visitors by the container for the contents, but discreet, perfect world, nobody could guess. There, nobody cries.
Maybe that's why, Zumthor's architecture represents the majority of their authenticity. Yet each of its projects is a little high, and pulidísima, formal charge. Their painstaking buildings millimeter care, designed from materials and designed to not bother at all, but also to surprise in many ways, are indeed spectacular. But it is obvious that this is another kind of show, maybe for adults.
"No ideas rather than things." A Zumthor likes to quote the aphorism of the poet William Carlos Williams physician. Recognize that the material is a key architectural values above consensus as light, is often branded as backward. But Zumthor insists, as the ancient sculptors, in which the material is enclosed form. And shows how subversive can be analyzed tradition and try to improve that legacy. While buildings do not ensure their eyes, their projects invite views as to the touch. And in that strange reading is the touch stone, wood or concrete speaking. In 2007 built a primitive hut with more than a hundred giant logs. On this shop poured concrete. When forged, burned tree trunks. The cement of the chapel in Mechernich brother Klaus (Germany) reached an unexpected warmth. Also in 2007 recovered the remains of a Gothic church, destroyed by bombing in World War II to build the museum in Cologne Kolumba, a building with no age, but with a dense history.
Zumthor is rewarding to inject credibility in an award, with the best and the biggest prize you can receive an architect, who in recent years seemed more concerned about partnering with the trend of the moment (Thom Mayne) not injure or forgotten ( Richard Rogers), which recognize those who deserve it. Double for the Pritzker Prize and the Swiss carpenter, though, justice is acknowledged, the Japanese knew Imperiale Award view before. Zumthor won it in 2008 after achieving the Mies van der Rohe in 1998 when, like today, had just lifted a handful of buildings. Not the victory relates to the number of projects: "I want to be the author of all my buildings," he said. In the hectic moments of twenty people to help her study.