Peter Zumthor lecture in The David Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University titled “Presence in Architecture, Seven Personal Observations” The lecture was given the 10th of November 2013 at 7 p.m. in the Bar Shira Auditorium, Tel Aviv University

Peter Zumthor lecture technical Information

  • Architect : Peter Zumthor
  • Edited by : The David Azrieli School of Architecture
  • Lecture Year : 2013

Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It’s about intensive research, really. The concentration is warm and intimate and like the fire inside the earth – intense but not distorted. You can go to a place, really feel it in your heart. It’s actually a beautiful feeling.

– Peter Zumthor

Peter Zumthor Lecture

Zumthor shared some of the inspirations behind his greatest projects, giving insight into his poetic. Here are some of the quotes of the lecture

It was a beautiful day. There was no school. It must have been early spring – I could smell it […] I remember myself running as a boy, and I had this lightness and elegance which I don’t have anymore.

I didn’t know it then, but as an old man now, looking back, I realize this was my first experience of presence. Presence is like a gap in the flow of history, where all of [a] sudden it is not past and not future.

– Peter Zumthor

Ideas are never lost. In a way, once you have found something, as an architect, you have worked on something, you can always think about it again.

– Peter Zumthor

We actually never talk about form in the office. we talk about construction, we can talk about science, and we talk about feelings […] From the beginning the materials are there, right next to the desk […] when we put materials together, a reaction starts […] this is about materials, this is about creating an atmosphere, and this is about creating architecture.

– Peter Zumthor

I remember when listening to this piece. […] after a fragment of a second, I was in it. Music has this capacity to go directly to your heart, much more than architecture. To me music can change the chemistry within you.

– Peter Zumthor