Never a Detail Too Many

Peter Zumthor has a very unique way of looking at details and how each one interacts specially with the building and the other details around it. When starting a project, Zumthor likes to think of how the building will be used in the future, and who all will be using it. Along this same line of thought, Zumthor likes creating spaces that don't necessarily create direction, but let people wonder freely throughout the building. Peter Zumthor has very beautiful buildings, and known of which are overly flashy, but they have an over all simple style about them that makes the building need no artistic additions.

In Peter Zumthor's mind, details are not just decoration, they lead to the understanding of a whole. With that thought, Zumthor adds so many details to his buildings, details that no one besides a skilled designer would notice, that the seemly over bearing quality of those details blend together to create absolute simplicity. Zumthor has come to know, that "At the point in time when concrete materials are assembled and erected, the architecture we have been looking for becomes part of the real world." This line is a perfect example of Zumthor's work, having so much hard work and demanding the best materials, that in the end it all evens out and one doesn't really notice the minuscule details anymore.

For example, the time it must have taken to get the light right in the thermal baths in Vals must have taken a back breaking long time, just to add mood lighting. But it was all worth it for Zumthor, because artificial lighting wouldn't do for the aura that he was trying to create. In fact, lighting is a huge factor in almost all the buildings Zumthor designs. Even if he is just refurbishing an old house/building, which he does alot, it has to feel right.