After decades of shunning glittering skyscrapers and corporate towers in favour of museums and memorials, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is finally getting his moment in the limelight.
Zumthor, 83, is the focus of a new documentary by acclaimed German director Wim Wenders, released after the architect completed the biggest project of his career, the much-delayed LACMA art museum in Los Angeles.
Filmed in 3D, “From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor” offers an immersive tour through the limited number of buildings created by the architect, known for his meticulous and minimalist work.
His best-known projects include a thermal bath in Vals, Switzerland, a monument to women burned as witches in the Norwegian Arctic, and the amoeba-shaped LACMA building, which finally opened its doors this year after two decades of reflection and controversy.
“I don’t like to be a star architect, I like to make these artistic buildings”, Zumthor said at the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered. “I’m glad if the client has the patience”.
Zumthor belongs to the same generation as Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, as well as Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster. While his peers have built across the world and expanded their practices internationally, Zumthor has remained in his home village of Haldenstein, gradually expanding his practice without leaving his mountainous Swiss surroundings.
“I can only do what I can control. I can work with a team of 20, maybe 30, that’s the maximum”, the 2009 Pritzker Prize winner said.
That approach means he turns down far more work than he accepts. He only takes on projects with a clear social purpose, such as museums, chapels and memorials; and has never designed a high-rise or commercial office.
Each project is unique, with as much as 80 per cent of its elements custom-made, from furniture to lighting. His aim is to create a particular feeling inside a building rather than simply an aesthetic.
Zumthor is equally attentive to context, seeking designs that complement their surroundings and appear, in his words, as “the completion of a landscape that wasn’t finished before”.
The son of a cabinet maker, he is uncompromising over details, ordering numerous samples and commissioning artisans to achieve precisely the finishes he envisions.
“My work resembles an artistic process. It’s almost the same”, he said.
That perfectionism can make him expensive and demanding for clients. LACMA director Michael Govan recalls that Zumthor “already had a reputation as being the slowest architect one could imagine” when he commissioned him.
Wenders’ film also explores Zumthor’s childhood and personal life, including his relationship with his late wife, who suffered a stroke several years ago.
“It was more personal than I thought”, Zumthor said. “It’s also a sort of declaration of love to my wife, who died this year, and that’s all good”. — AFP
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