19 Facts About Peter Zumthor

Peter Zumthor's father was a cabinet-maker, which exposed him to design from an early age and led him to become an apprentice for a carpenter later in 1958.

Peter Zumthor studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in his native city starting in 1963.

In 1966, Zumthor studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute in New York.

Peter Zumthor's buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel.

Peter Zumthor's practice grew quickly and he accepted more international projects.

Peter Zumthor has taught at University of Southern California Institute of Architecture and SCI-ARC in Los Angeles, the Technical University of Munich, Tulane University, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Peter Zumthor's best known projects are the Kunsthaus Bregenz, a shimmering glass and concrete cube that overlooks Lake Constance in Austria; the cave-like thermal baths in Vals, Switzerland ; the Swiss Pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hannover, an all-timber structure intended to be recycled after the event; the Kolumba Diocesan Museum, in Cologne; and the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, on a farm near Wachendorf.

In 1993, Peter Zumthor won the competition for a museum and documentation center on the horrors of Nazism to be built on the site of Gestapo headquarters in Berlin.

Peter Zumthor's submission called for an extended three-story building with a framework consisting of concrete rods.

In November 2009, it was revealed that Peter Zumthor is working on a major redesign for the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Peter Zumthor was selected to design the Serpentine Gallery's annual summer pavilion with designer Piet Oudolf in 2011.

In 1998, Peter Zumthor received the Carlsberg Architectural Prize for his designs of the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Bregenz, Austria and the Thermal Baths at Vals, Switzerland.

Peter Zumthor won the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture in 1999.

Peter Zumthor's work is largely unpublished in part because of his philosophical belief that architecture must be experienced first hand.

Peter Zumthor's published written work is mostly narrative and phenomenological.

In Thinking Architecture Peter Zumthor expresses his motivation in designing buildings that have an emotional connection and possess a powerful and unmistakable presence and personality.

In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses: images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him.

In summer 2017, Peter Zumthor curated the exhibition Dear to Me at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, marking the twentieth anniversary of one of his most famous designs.

Part of the program were conversations with philosophers, curators, historians, composers, writers, photographers, collectors, and craftsmen that Peter Zumthor had invited to contribute to the exhibition.