Book review:Peter Zumthor: Atmospheres
Published in 2006 by Birkhäuser, Basel, Siwtzerland
ISBN: 978-3-7643-7495-2
This is a transcript of a lecture given by Peter Zumthor as part of a German festival of literature and music in June 2003. It’s edited by Brigitte Labs-Ehlert and includes the slides used during the presentation. The first-person informal narrative of the lecture is kept and the resulting tone of the text is personal and rambling that suits Zumthor’s theories on what makes good architecture.
Zumthor identifies that the initial emotional response to an event, be it meeting a new person or visiting a new building, is critical to our overall perception of the occasion. He doubts the adage that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ by stating that if the scene was not beautiful in the first instance than the beholder would not have had the positive response. He states that there is an emotive discourse between the scene and the person to create the unique, beautiful atmosphere. He describes this atmosphere as the ‘magic of the real’ and proceeds to identify nine characteristics that combine to provide us with our emotional response to a place.
1. The Body of Architecture:
The components of a structure and how they are arranged and combined to produce the building, i.e. the anatomy of architecture.
2. Material Compatibility:
A matter of juxtaposition of materials within an architectural composition, so they relate and complement one another.
3. The Sound of a Space:
The acoustics of a space, the ability of a building to respond and reverberate its activity and purpose.
4. The Temperature of a Space:
The materiality effect on temperature, the cold of steel, the warmth of wood. The fine tuning of a space’s warmth, tempering.
5. Surrounding Objects:
The end-users contribution to a space, how they arrange their possessions and how architecture responds as a receptacle for these objects.
6. Between Composure and Seduction:
Movement within a building, how a user is invited and seduced into exploring and progressing through a space, freedom of movement.
7. Tension between Interior and Exterior:
Thresholds and transition, but also what the exterior says about the interior of the building, the concealment and expression of its inner use.
8. Level of Intimacy:
Proximity and distance in relation the human scale, how the form of large spaces need to respond differently to small intimate spaces.
9. The Light on Things:
The light and shadow, the composition of natural and artificial light within a space and the selection of materials based on their absorption and reflectance of light.
He states that the above characteristics define how his office approaches their work and the qualities that he’d like to see his own work critiqued by. As an appendix, he goes on to describe a further three virtues that are personal to him:
1. Architecture as Surroundings:
Consideration to how the building is suited within its surroundings, will it have the longevity to relate to people throughout the building’s lifespan.
2. Coherence:
Upon occupation, the building suits the end user and enhances their activities. All the components combine to produce a design of clarity and beauty.
Upon occupation, the building suits the end user and enhances their activities. All the components combine to produce a design of clarity and beauty.
3. The Beautiful Form:
The combination of all of the above should be harmonious and result in a work of beauty. The design process should slowly evolve and account for all these characteristics to produce the beautiful form.
I enjoyed this narrative and, with the benefit of hindsight, wish I had read it whilst researching for my dissertation. The emotional and expressive response that architecture induces from the person is critical to our understanding of what makes good architecture. It suggests that many modern buildings, whilst being technically correct, fail to ignite a sentiment from ourselves due to an ignorance of these compositional methods.
The combination of all of the above should be harmonious and result in a work of beauty. The design process should slowly evolve and account for all these characteristics to produce the beautiful form.
I enjoyed this narrative and, with the benefit of hindsight, wish I had read it whilst researching for my dissertation. The emotional and expressive response that architecture induces from the person is critical to our understanding of what makes good architecture. It suggests that many modern buildings, whilst being technically correct, fail to ignite a sentiment from ourselves due to an ignorance of these compositional methods.
