Peter Zumthor

I think space, architectural space, is my thing. It's not about facade, elevation, making image, making money. My passion is creating space.

— Peter Zumthor

I grew up in a craftsman's home, where things were done with our own hands. I did cabinetmaking for four years and…

— Peter Zumthor

Architecture has its place in the concrete world. This is where it exists. This is where it makes its statement.

— Peter Zumthor

When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, I try to plumb…

— Peter Zumthor

I’m a passionate architect... I do not work for money

— Peter Zumthor

My relationship to plants becomes closer and closer. They make me quiet; I like to be in their company.

— Peter Zumthor

If you look at the Earth without architecture, its sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to…

— Peter Zumthor

The first 10 years of my professional life had only to do with running away from my father. He was a wonderful…

— Peter Zumthor

I've said goodbye to the overworked notion that architecture has to save the world.

— Peter Zumthor

My buildings should have an emotional core –a space which, in itself, has an emotional nice feeling.

— Peter Zumthor

I think the chance of finding beauty is higher if you don't work on it directly. Beauty in architecture is driven by…

— Peter Zumthor

I work anywhere between three and 10 years on a project, depending on the size. My lifetime is finite. Therefore, I have…

— Peter Zumthor

If you're lucky, and a building succeeds, the real product has many more dimensions than you can ever imagine. You have the…

— Peter Zumthor

In a fragment of a second you can understand: Things you know, things you don’t know, things you don’t know that you…

— Peter Zumthor

If I look at history, it seems that most wars and most cruel things have been done by men and not by…

— Peter Zumthor

My first buildings, when I was about 30, were rejected for aesthetic reasons.

— Peter Zumthor

You feel a certain way in a glass or concrete or limestone building. It has an effect on your skin - the…

— Peter Zumthor

There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it,

— Peter Zumthor

I design for the use of a building and the place and for the people who use it... the reputation for arrogance…

— Peter Zumthor

Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It's about intensive research, really. The concentration…

— Peter Zumthor

If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making -…

— Peter Zumthor

In a society that celebrates the inessential, architecture can put up a resistance, counteract the waste of forms and meanings and speak…

— Peter Zumthor

I can't be bought with money. If someone calls me and asks me to work for them for three or four years,…

— Peter Zumthor

Small museums are great. Big museums are a drag.

— Peter Zumthor

I work a little bit like a sculptor. When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I…

— Peter Zumthor