Peter Zumthor Quotes

When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.

In order to design buildings with a sensuous connection to life, one must think in a way that goes far beyond form and construction.

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

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

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

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

Architecture is not about form

Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to past life.

Presence is like a gap in the flow of history, where all of [a] sudden it is not past and not future.

What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction; it is not only about forms and shapes and images.

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

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

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

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

When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, I try to plumb its depths, its form, its history and its sensuous qualities.

There is still a real need for good quality architecture, not paper architecture, but the real stuff.

If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making - he is not an artist.

Small museums are great. Big museums are a drag.

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

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

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

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