Peter zumthor

The first 10 years of my professional life had only to do with running away from my father. He was a wonderful cabinet-maker, and me being the eldest son, I had to take over his shop, his profession...

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.

I work a little bit like a sculptor. 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...

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

Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting, it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I believe I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls,...

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

Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It's about intensive research, really. The concentration is warm and intimate and like the fire inside the earth - intense...

I'm not mainly interested in what buildings mean as symbols or vehicles for ideas.

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.