Peter Zumthor

“The bottom line may be that my inventing buildings is, indeed, a very private kind of activity. But it's done to be shared. It is comforting and consoling. From the reactions I get I can see I'm not doing something strange.”

“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 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.”

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

“If you look at the Earth without architecture, it's sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to do shelter in the broadest sense of the word, whether it's a movie theater or a simple log cabin in the mountains. This is the core of architecture: To provide a space for huma...”

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