Peter Zumthor, the Swiss winner of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, dismisses critics who view him as a crazy recluse who is slow at completing work.
Zumthor, who will turn 66 this month, has risen above early rejections to become known for works including the thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland, and the Bruder Klaus Chapel in Mechernich, Germany. He has lived in the Alpine village of Haldenstein for more than 30 years, where he spoke in an interview.
Gallu: How did you wind up in Haldenstein?
Zumthor: Coincidence. I was here working for the cantonal memorial commission. A colleague of mine, an engineer, suggested we buy an old farmhouse. That was 1971.
Gallu: Does the landscape here influence your work?
Zumthor: Well, I can imagine it would be different if I worked in Basel, where I come from. I find it easy to concentrate here. It’s similar to a farm, where life and work blend with one another.
Gallu: Do people in the village take note of your work?
Zumthor: Yes. For the first 20 years, I was the crazy one, and then as I had more success, you could see they took joy in it too. My first buildings, when I was about 30, were rejected for aesthetic reasons. That’s changed now.
Gallu: How did the town react to you winning the Pritzker?
Zumthor: Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone. They did something when I won the Japanese Arts Association prize but they really don’t need to do anything more now.
Gallu: Are you building anything else in Graubuenden?
Zumthor: I’ve built two wooden houses near Vals. I built them for my wife. Those were private projects.
Gallu: How do you choose projects?
Zumthor: 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. 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.
Gallu: Are there projects you would have liked to have done or any disappointments?
Zumthor: Germany canceled the building for the “Topography of Terror” for political reasons. It’s not so often communicated, because one doesn’t like to remember that history very much. It was communicated more under the themes of “the architect is crazy” or “the costs aren’t certain,” but of course a Swiss architect from the Alps can’t make the Federal Republic of Germany remember these things.
That was traumatic, more from the way in which they treated me. We worked hard for 10 years and then suddenly that was it. No explanation or anything.
Gallu: Do you still participate in competitions?
Zumthor: Previously, all of my work was done through competitions but for the past seven or eight years I have taken part in almost none. Now most things are direct commissions.
Gallu: You’re often characterized as reclusive. Is this true?
Zumthor: That characterization comes mostly from people far away who don’t know me. I’m not a networker and I don’t constantly promote and publicize my work. The main point of my work is constructing buildings. It’s also connected to the fact that I’m not working on a career. I work on buildings.
To build good houses doesn’t take a lot of publicity; that just gets in the way. I have to stay concentrated on what I want to make. That way I don’t allow myself to get distracted.
I also don’t make lazy or fast compromises. I speak at length with the client. I listen. I’m the first to accept it when I’m not right. On the other hand, I won’t accept arbitrary decisions. It’s not inaccurate to say I’m stubborn, or uncompromising. I work like an author.
The Neue Zuercher Zeitung said I can be difficult at times because I want to do good work and that I’m not a difficult star. It made me happy that someone correctly portrayed me. I’m a normal person. I’m simply someone who wants to do good work.
Gallu: So those descriptions are exaggerated?
Zumthor: Yes, they’re cliches about this holy, mystical guy in the Alps. That’s all rubbish. Only people who don’t know me write such things.
Gallu: What does winning the Pritzker mean to you?
Zumthor: It’s a super prize. It’s really nice that the work we do from this little village gets seen, because I’m not a networker, calling people up to say, “hey, look what I’ve done.” Buildings should be able to speak for themselves.
Gallu: Are you particularly proud of any one of your projects?
Zumthor: No, they’re like kids. They’re all different and all good. Some people say of the residential home for the elderly in Masans, Chur: “That’s your best building.” Some people have told me the Swiss Pavilion in Hanover is their favorite. The people who don’t know my work very well tend to say the thermal baths, of course.
Gallu: Your work style is well suited to this location?
Zumthor: Well, the pressure’s still there. We have telephones, we’re connected to the world. Some people use the term Slow Architecture. This term is somewhat askew, because in principle I work very fast, sometimes incredibly fast. But what’s needed is a ripening process. Everyone who does creative work knows that. Sometimes you have to do something and then let it sit. And then when you look at it again later you see what’s good and what’s not. In the beginning, you’re too close to the work.
It’s like a kaleidoscope. Then at some point, it gets to the point that everything is in the right place. I have to explain this to my clients and I say that having that time is a central part of our work.
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