Aproximación, reducción, materializacion: algunas reflexiones acerca de la insuficiencia de la representación a partir del trabajo de Peter Zumthor

While the ‘globalized’ architectural discipline continuous its immersion in a trend that privileges quantitative and mediated experiences, Peter Zumthor’s small office/workshop in Haldenstein - a small village in the swiss Graubünden – works by slowly developing each assignment to the last detail, always privileging the quality of the final result as the maximum value and top priority. Regardless of the rash global competition to attract the media, Zumthor carefully chooses his clients, does not allow the re-printing of his own monograph and proves himself very reluctant at the time of accepting interviews. Often, he affords certain moments to take some distance and reflect critically about his own creative activity and about the essence of architecture, what has led to a number of texts, concepts and categories that are extremely interesting from the point of view of representation. The text that follows explores and revisits some of those ideas and categories through a reading and a translation of some of his texts that tries to relate them to his work. More particularly, the article “Partituren und Bilder. Architektonische Arbeiten aus dem Atelier Peter Zumthor. 1985-1988” that was part of an exhibition held with the same name at the Architekturgalerie in Lucern, only available in German, has been translated as well as another text and interview held around the house Luzi.