Dreams and Promises
Atelier Peter Zumthor's contribution in the Central Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2018.
Perhaps I work like an artist. I'm not implementing the ideas of others. My client wants a building; I will try to find a good form for it and share this work with them. The process of finding a good form is full of insecurities, of despair, pleasure and joy. And it needs Freespace to move and think. Our models - structural, sculptural, atmospheric, always different - aim to discover and show the physical presence of building and place. They help us to understand, to think and to dream. We make them to hold the promise of the object we are looking for.
Peter Zumthor
In the book Thinking Architecture, Zumthor says: "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 believe that the language of architecture is not a question of a specific style. Every building is built for a specific use in a specific place and for a specific society. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can. My buildings try to answer the questions that emerge from these simple facts as precisely and critically as they can". Steeped in Heidegger, his thinking is fundamentally connected to the experience of place. For him, places and spaces are stored in our bur bodies and are the fertile ground and starting points of his work... "the thought process is not abstract, but works with spatial images. It has sensuous components". His highly articulated haptic sense allows him to be in his feature-imaged spaces, while simultaneously being in previous experiences . he invents spaces that he hopes someone "will remember with pleasure". In this exhibition, Zumthor sets out a workshop of his models for us to enjoy, allowing us the opportunity to explore his own journey from thoughts and memories to actuality, to his spaces that nourish the soul.
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara
