Zumthor, Peter, << TSOOM tohr, PEH tuhr >> , (1943-…) is a Swiss architect. In 2009, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious international award in architecture (see Pritzker Architecture Prize). In its citation, the Pritzker committee praised Zumthor for his “buildings of great integrity—untouched by fad or fashion. Declining a majority of the commissions that come his way, he only accepts a project if he feels a deep affinity for its program, and from the moment of commitment, his devotion is complete, overseeing the project’s realization to the very last detail.”
Zumthor’s work is devoted to the integration of a building to its site, emphasizing careful and imaginative craftsmanship. Zumthor concentrates on small-scale works and noncommercial commissions, such as residences and housing groups, and community, religious, and cultural institutions. Many of his projects have been built in Graubunden, a Swiss canton, as well as in Austria and Germany.
One of Zumthor’s best-known designs is Kolumba (2007), an art museum in Cologne, Germany. The museum rises out of the ruins of a Gothic-style church destroyed during World War II (1939-1945). Zumthor won international praise for his design for thermal baths (1996) in Vals, a mountain village in Switzerland. The project resembles ancient Roman baths. Zumthor’s Brother Klaus Field Chapel (2007) was built by local farmers in a field in Wachendorf, Germany, near Cologne. The chapel honors Saint Nicholas of Flüe, a Swiss saint of the 1400’s known as Brother Klaus. Zumthor’s other notable projects include an art museum (1997) in Bregenz, Austria, and the Swiss pavilion at Expo 2000, a world’s fair in Hanover, Germany.
Zumthor was born on April 26, 1943, in Basel, Switzerland. He opened his own architecture office in 1979 after studying for a year at the Pratt Institute in New York City and working in the preservation department in his local canton in Switzerland.
