Interview of Zumthor

因为Zumthor获普利策奖，他也成为最近的网络红人了，看到一篇他获奖后的电话采访，拿来和大家分享：

Chicagotribune：You have said, "Architecture is not a vehicle or a symbol for things that do not belong to its essence. 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." That’s beautifully put, but I want to go deeper. I’m sorry to ask you to answer this on a cellphone, but how would you define the essence of architecture?

Zumthor：I guess it's to do rooms or spaces for people. If you look at the Earth without architecture, it’s sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to do shelter in the broadest sense of the word, whether it’s a movie theater or a simple log cabin in the mountains. This is the core of architecture: To provide a space for human beings.

Chicagotribune：It sounds like you don’t work with many clients who come do you? Do you reject most of them? Why?

Zumthor：True. I think my work is about authorship. It’s less about rendering a service and even less about implementing ideas of other people. I need a close contact to the client whoever it is and a commitment of the client to go out and do a process together. I want to do the best for him. I need his respect and his patience. I want to work with a sophisticated person who’s interested in a good building and not in my name.

Chicagotribune：What lessons does this award teach young architects?

Zumthor：I would hope that it would teach them that you can carefully do your thing, that you can be yourself, that you can try to solve the problem, that you can concentrate on the essence of your task, that you don’t have to do what other people expect of you. There is still a real need for good quality architecture, not paper architecture, but the real stuff.

via An interview with Peter Zumthor: On the Pritzker Prize, the essence of architecture and hope for young architects