Product Description

The creative act in which a work of architecture comes into being is beyond all historical and technical knowledge. Its focus is on the dialogue with the issues of the time. At the moment of its creation, architecture is bound to the present in a very special way. It reflects the spirit of its inventor and gives its own answers to the questions of the time through its user-oriented form and appearance, its relationship with other works of architecture, and its association with the place where it stands.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3175378 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 59 pages

Language Notes
Text: German

Customer Reviews

clear thinker and builder
Reading this book was like reading a long-lost secret manual of
"How to become a 21 century Samurai..." I guess that sense of delusion rises because the content and the tone of book has this (quasi) idea of medieval perfection achieved through a repetition of hands-on practice. "I do not work towards architecture from a theoretically defined point of departure, for I am committed to making architecture,," writes Zumthor.

Moreover, a reader, at the back of her/his head, has those powerful images of Bath House in Vaals (tour de force of phenomenological experience) that intensifies the delusion. One would think, 'Zumthor must be a man from Mars to build architecture like that' and 'his writings must be a strong sleeping pill.' Usual Suspect !

He writes extremely clear with extremely simple terms. This slim book tells us how an architect of such originality thinks and experiences daily life. It's a great pleasure to find out what kind of music (Mozart's piano concertos) zumthor listens; what kind of artists (Beuys and Merz) he likes; what kind of film he watches (Ettore Scola's film Le Bal); what kind of books (Calvino) he reads; and what kind of sayings ("the hard core beauty") in the radio show captivates him. A former cabinet maker, his book is carefully jointed, just like his buildings. Anyone who found this book fun/inspiring to read should also try Alvaro Siza's "Writings on Architecture"

Highly recommended
A thoroughly engaging book about meaningful architecture - it now holds a very special place in my architecture library, right next to Michael Benedikt's For An Architecture of Reality.
Excellent for anyone interested in Peter Zumthor's work.

Source of Rationality
It reflects the knowledge of a big architect that Zumthor is, one thousand words that make you learn a diferent way to look at things and to create a rational way of thinking about architecture.