Archinect - News

Editor's Picks #315

2013-05-14T08:00:00-04:00

News
Robin Pogrebin reported that following wide-ranging protests, the Museum of Modern Art has selected the design firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to re-examine it’s planned expansion including whether to keep any of the existing American Folk Art Museum. Scott Gustafon was somewhat relieved "I believe that Tod Williams and Ricardo Scofidio are old friends, so this is a step in the right direction" and Lian Chikako Chang deadpanned "Pretty sure that DSR can handle staggered floorplates". Added Darkman "There is room behind the museum... you could install very gradual ramps or something. Additionally, i'd like to see the facade brought out to the sidewalk to open up the building--not sure how to do that though... ha. Or replace with semi-transparent glazing in the same pattern and shape. Would be cool to see it glow".

Bustler.net showcased Parabola Chair by Los Angeles-based architect and product designer Carlo Aiello, winner of the 2013 ICFF Studio Award. The chair will be e...

LACMA taps Zumthor for $650-million new look

2013-05-01T14:08:00-04:00

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, an acclaimed Swiss architect is hoping to pull off what an acclaimed Dutch one could not. Next month LACMA will publicly unveil a $650-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor for a dramatic new museum building along Wilshire Boulevard.

Peter Zumthor: RIBA awards gold medal to architecture's man of mystery

2013-02-05T11:34:00-05:00

At the age of 69, he has only built around 20 projects, but each one has caused ripples. He is now courted by millionaires around the globe – from Spiderman's Tobey Maguire to Qatar's Sheikh Saud al-Thani – each desperate for a piece of his pure, unadulterated vision. He is the architect every architect wants to be, the inspiration every student cites. So how did the myth of the mountain man come to be?

peter zumthor as developer?

2012-11-24T20:17:00-05:00

"In 2009 we built two timber houses, the Oberhus and the Unterhus, in the hamlet of Leis, just over 1,500 m above sea level in the community of Vals in Grisons. From 1 December 2012 onward we are letting out the Unterhus for vacations. A third timber house, the Türmlihus, will soon complete this little ensemble. The Türmlihus will welcome its first guests in autumn 2013. We are very much looking forward to having guests in our timber vacation homes in Leis. Annalisa and Peter Zumthor"

peter and annalisa zumthor are, apparently, getting into the hospitality business. one - and soon to be two houses, designed by zumthor and located in the small town of leis, will be able to be leased out beginning next week. both houses appear to be located adjacent to a house designed for annalisa when she was the manager of the thermal baths in vals. (zumthor lost a bid two years ago to buy the thermal baths from the town, who sold it to a young developer).

given that the leasing arrangements are made directly through a website apparently set up by the pritzker prize laureate, one would assume this is being directly managed by either his or his wife's office. at the very least, it could end up being yet another opportunity to 'reside' in one of the architect's homes. (these come on top of 'the secular retreat' home being designed for alain de botton's 'living architecture' program of rental homes throughout england.)

it's an interesting turn for zumthor and one i perso...

The Architect and the Plantsman

2012-10-25T16:08:00-04:00

[Zumthor] runs a small office from his mountain home in Switzerland; he doesn't give interviews by telephone; he rarely makes public appearances; and his projects—like the ghostly luminescent bathhouse he created for the Swiss town of Vals—emanate a high seriousness that could only have come from this oracle of the Alps. Yet recently, the typically solitary Zumthor has taken to palling around with another prominent designer: celebrated garden designer Piet Oudolf.

Peter Zumthor: a modern giant builds on his reputation

2012-10-08T14:29:00-04:00

Zumthor’s work has nothing coldly functional or academic about it. He doesn’t deal in stacks of Lego or Zaha Hadid-style computerised ziggurats. Instead he seems to warm bricks and mortar into subtle poetry, and whether he is dreaming up thermal baths (as at Vals), sheltered housing (Chur) or a place of worship (the Bruder Klaus chapel near Cologne), one invariably senses a powerful spirituality inspiring and informing the design.

Peter Zumthor to Receive the 2013 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture

2012-09-28T19:07:00-04:00

Pritzker-winning architect Peter Zumthor has been announced as the recipient of the 2013 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen of England and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence on the advancement of architecture.

Wim Wenders responds to rumors about Zumthor feature film

2012-07-11T14:08:00-04:00

Wim Wender's studio has informed us that the information relayed the other day, was not entirely accurate, due to misinformation in Suedostschweiz, the source article as cited in our recent news post.

It is correct that Mr Wenders is currently working on an artistic interview film with Peter Zumthor for the upcoming Biennale. This short film, however, will be a unique contribution to this year's Biennale only and has nothing to do whatsoever with Mr Wenders' intention to do a feature documentary on Mr Zumthor at a later point of time. It is certainly not a trailer for the feature documentary. These are two completely different projects with the Biennale short film being singularly exhibited at the Biennale and with no connection to a possible feature documentary.

peter zumthor + wim wenders = movie magic....

2012-07-08T07:59:00-04:00

"The internationally-renowned director Wim Wenders devotes his new film to Graubünden architect Peter Zumthor. Work on the project will take several years to complete. A taste of the film will be available August at the Venice Biennale."

ok - the translation's mine (and my german suspect) but apparently wim wenders is doing a long term documentary on zumthor's work. the primary gist of the movie will be to document - fully - one of his projects from sketch to completion. this could either be brilliant or maddeningly overdone....

Peter Zumthor loses bid for Vals thermal baths

2012-03-13T00:19:00-04:00

Swiss star architect Peter Zumthor has lost a battle for ownership of the spa and hotel complex in Vals, eastern Switzerland, which he designed. The commune, which owns the complex, decided on Friday night to sell it to 35-year-old property developer Remo Stoffel.

Piet Oudolf's garden at the Serpentine Gallery pavilion

2011-07-01T00:45:29-04:00

So who did Zumthor call upon to provide the garden, the green hortus at the centre of his conclusus? Piet Oudolf, of course, foremost exponent of the new perennials movement, a low-key Dutchman with the build of a rugby player who has practically cornered the market in high profile planting projects: the Lurie Garden at Chicago’s Millennium Park, New York’s Battery Park and the wildly popular High Line are among his best known works.

Peter Zumthor’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Opens this Friday

2011-06-29T13:29:00-04:00

Peter Zumthor's first completed building in the UK opens this Friday, July 1: the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. The concept for this year’s Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.

Peter Zumthor-designed Serpentine Gallery Pavilion opens this week

2011-06-27T17:53:00-04:00

While Norman Foster and David Chipperfield issue pitiless streams of press releases about their fabulous projects, wins, achievements, awards, honours, Zumthor does not cultivate journalists. On the contrary, he tends to be ever so slightly disobliging to reporters.

Take a first look at this year's Serpentine Pavilion on The Telegraph's YouTube channel.

A garden within a garden

2011-04-05T11:36:00-04:00

Peter Zumthor has unveiled his plans for a secret garden for this years Serpentine Pavilion.

In collaboration with the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf, Zumthor will create a contemplative garden courtyard enclosed by lightweight black-clad structure.