Zumthor:A Feeling of History

When Peter Zumthor completed the Zinc Mine Museum Allmannajuvet in southern Norway, he invited Norwegian architectural historian Mari Lending to engage in a dialogue about the project. In their meandering, impressionistic conversation, they reference their favorite writers such as Johann Peter Hebel, Stendhal, Nabokov, and T.S. Eliot, discussing the roles that history, time, and transience play in Zumthor's overall work. Zumthor explores how a sensitivity to history has influenced his attempts at emotional reconstruction through building—from architectural interventions in dramatic landscapes to his design for the redevelopment of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the building was conceived for an urban scale. This small, beautifully designed book documents the conversation between Zumthor and Lending and offers a surprisingly insightful look at the work of one of the most interesting and creative architects of our time. It is enriched by a photo essay by renowned Swiss architectural photographer Hélène Binet, showcasing the paved paths of Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis on the Athenian Acropolis.