I am convinced that a good building must be capable of absorbing the traces of human life and taking on a specific richness... I think of the patina …

- Peter Zumthor

Architecture has its own realm. It has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think of it primarily as either a message or symbol, but a…

- Peter Zumthor

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 in…

- Peter Zumthor

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…

- Peter Zumthor

Presence is like a gap in the flow of history, where all of [a] sudden it is not past and not future.

- Peter Zumthor

If you're lucky, and a building succeeds, the real product has many more dimensions than you can ever imagine. You have the sun, the light, the rain,…

- 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 cons…

- Peter Zumthor

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

- Peter Zumthor

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

- Peter Zumthor