Swiss architect Peter Zumthor (b. 1943) needs no presentations in the architecture world. He is the winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture 2009, and he belongs to the leading figures of place-sensitive and tectonic architecture which is always both strikingly simple and powerful. This book presents Zumthor as the master of using wood and as the winner of the special Finnish wood architecture award – Spirit of Nature – in 2006. The materiality of his architecture is studied through three projects: Haus Luzi (2002), Haus Annalisa (2007) and five tree houses of the guesthouse Pension Briol (2007). The illustration is delicate and sensual and contains both photographs and reprints of his watercolours and sketches. The book also contains his essay “Body of Wood” written in 2006, a short biography and a list of selected wood buildings.
There is a special feel to living in a room of solid joined beams, a room that is not simply clad in wood but made of wood through and through… The desire to live in rooms like this, the desire to feel the physical closeness of wood, informs all of the houses presented here.
— Peter Zumthor, p. 10.
We are proud to carry this beautiful title in our shop. This is a must-have addition to the Zumthor collections of all of his admirers as well as a learning lesson to the critics of contemporary architecture and architecture students.