Bio:
Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect that was born is Basel. When he was younger he went to elementary school in Switzerland. He then went to school at Pratt Institute, which is in New York. Apart from being an Architect he is also a professor at various colleges.
Accolades:
Zumthor has won the Pritzker prize, the architectural equivalent of the Nobel peace prize. Recently he has won a RIBA Royal gold medal. Some of his works are the Therme Vals, the FeldKappele, the Gugalun House, The Swiss sound box and the Art museum in Austria.
Style:
He likes to use sharp defined lines but they can range from flat surfaces in the Therme Vals to the rigged sharp walls in the FeldKappele
“I believe that architecture today needs to reflect on the tasks and possibilities which are inherently its own. Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. 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. I believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can.” - Peter Zumthor