Thinking architecture

"Wooden floors like light membranes, heavy stone masses, soft textiles, polished granite, pliable leather, raw steel, polished mahogany, crystalline glass, soft asphalt warmed by the sun... the architect's materials, our materials. We know them all. And yet we do not know them. In order to design, to invent architecture, we must learn to handle them with awareness. This is research, this is the work of remembering."

"All design work starts from the premise of this physical, objective sensuouness of architecture, of its materials. To experience architecture in a concrete way means to touch, see, hear, and smell it. To discover and conciously work with these qualities - these are the themes of our teaching."

Peter Zumthor

Extracted from: ZUMTHOR, P: 2006, Thinking Architecture, Birkhäuser, Basel.