Peter Zumthor Quotes

The general public will almost always stand behind the traditionalists. In the public eye, architecture is about comfort, about shelter, about bricks and mortar.

A house is very much like a portrait. I cannot disconnect houses from people. The thought of arrangement, the curves and straight lines. It gives an indication of the character at the heart of it.

What does a house want to be?

Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.

We need to rediscover the essence of the meaning of 'the use.' Architecture is, above all, here for a better living. Every gesture, every shape must be justified by various reasons that would reinforce their reason to be, their use, and will give more sense to their beauty.

Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.

I love building spaces: architecture, furniture, all of it, probably more than fashion. The development procedure is more tactile. It's about space and form and it's something you can share with other people.

I try to create homes, not houses.

All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.

Architecture is not an inspirational business, it's a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things; that's all.

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

Houses mean a creation, something new, a shelter freed from the idea of a cave.

I studied at a time when buildings were sterile things, and their creators were hands-off people - super-intelligent people, but you felt they didn't love the stuff buildings are made from.

It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms.

Well-building hat three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.

Personally, one of the greatest sources of inspiration for my work has been architecture. I've had the chance to see so many exquisite structures, whether they are historical monuments or modern commercial premises.

What architecture does is what a coat does for our body. It wraps us.

In designing hardware to be used every day, it was important to keep both the human aspects and the machine in mind. What looks good also often feels good.

The home to everyone is to him his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose.

The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.

All fine architectural values are human values, else not valuable.

Chairs are like sculpture.

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

When you come out of the storms and sub-zero temperatures into a tiny yurt, there's a sense that family love and care is the most important thing in the world.

People outside the profession of architecture perhaps often lack the understanding of how their physical environment comes into being. What are the processes, the concerns and considerations? What are the parameters that shape the world around them?