One of my current obsessions is exploring the connection between fashion and architecture. A few days ago I did a post on architectural shoes, but today I feel like concentrating (almost) exclusively on architecture and in particular on Peter Zumthor.
Switzerland is widely considered today as one of the most important centres of modern architectural thought and Zumthor’s works are among its major achievements. Dubbed “a legend” and “the architect’s architect”, Zumthor has inspired many of his contemporaries with his approach to design characterised by craftsmanship, understanding and rigour.
Born in 1943 in Basel, the son of a cabinet-maker, Zumthor learnt from his father the art of carpentry when he was still very young. This experience gave him a deep knowledge of different materials, of their textures and consistency, something he kept on developing when he became an architect. Zumthor studied at the Pratt Institute in New York in the ‘60s and later on he worked on many historic restoration projects.
The recipient of various awards, Zumthor is the architect behind some of the most striking modern buildings and structures such as the Thermal Baths (1996) at Vals, Switzerland, the Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz Art Museum, 1997) in Austria, and the Swiss Sound Box at the Hanover EXPO 2000.
His work is characterised by clean and simple forms, a genuine love for the natural surroundings in which he integrates his buildings and a careful choice of materials, usually selected in accordance with their tactile, plastic and reactive qualities. 
Zumthor uses the materials for his buildings as a composer would use the musical notes, to create a perfect symphony. A good example is the square building of the Thermal Baths in Vals. Located in a valley, the building seems to sprout from the very ground that supports it as it is made in the same colour of the mountains that surround it. The Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB) building instead changes its inner light depending on the type of exhibition installed inside, the time of the day and the colour of the sky.
Last year the KUB hosted the event “Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects 1986/2007”. This is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the acclaimed Swiss architect, featuring 29 buildings and projects, 2 life-size video installations, 6 large-scale models and various plans, sketches, drawings and models from the Zumthor Atelier archives. The exhibition offers a unique chance of looking at the architect’s creative processes and work methodology.
The installations by Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch are actually one of the best parts of the exhibition. The videos show a constant stream of images of twelve life-sized buildings from six different angles. The screenings are staggered, so that every 20 minutes a new film begins, allowing the viewer to experience all the buildings in four real-time hours. The selection of the twelve buildings shown include also Zumthor’s most recent work, the Kolumba Art Museum in Cologne, which was completed last year.
The “Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects” exhibition will arrive in Lisbon in September 2008, in celebration of the return of the Experimentadesign (EXP) event in the Portuguese capital in 2009. The EXP, a Lisbon-based international biennale centred on architecture, design and creativity, was first launched in 1999. Last year its organisers were invited to hold the event in Amsterdam and, from now on, each city will host the Experimentadesign Biennale on alternating years.
The Biennale launches in Amsterdam in September 2008 and comes back to Lisbon the following year. In the meantime, Lisbon will host the Warm-Up Experimentadesign Lisboa 2009, a programme that celebrates design and the new international life of the Biennale. The Zumthor exhibition, one of the highlights of the September programme, will take place at the LX Factory and will introduce the main theme of the Experimentadesign Lisbon 2009, “It’s About Time”, that will also be anticipated by a fascinating lecture by Zumthor on 6th September.
If there is a designer who tried to apply Zumthor’s purist architectural teachings to fashion that’s Jil Sander’s Raf Simons who for this Autumn has employed heavy fabrics such as tweed in an architectural way creating starkly elegant fitted dresses, jackets and coats with vertical or horizontal details jutting out, and 
curvilinear and sculptural fronts that draw on the principles and concepts of architecture. Tweed fabrics and principles of architecture are synthesised together, resulting in complex outfits that appear only deceptively simple.
The “Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects” exhibition might inspire you more connections between fashion and architecture, but if you miss the Lisbon event, don’t despair: the Portuguese capital is just the first stop in an international itinerary that also
includes Moscow and Texas.
“Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects 1986/2007”, LX-Factory, Rua Rodrigues Faria 103, Alcântara, 1300 Lisbon, Portugal, 7 September-2 November 2008.
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