I remember in graduate school in Boston spending a great amount of time discussing minimalism versus form. I have always loved form and complexity and was an evangelizer of the work of Gehry, Morphosis, Holl and Zaha. My friend found too much form complicating, claiming it made him nervous.

Bruder Klaus Chapel, by architect Peter Zumthor

Zumthor’s Kolumba museum in Cologne, Germany

He always defended and loved minimalism, specifically citing Herzog and Demeuron and Peter Zumthor as two examples of work he loved. Many arguments late night in the studio. In retrospect I feel vindicated as H & D have come over to my side and are now one of the leading complexity designers in the world. One only has to look at their proposal for the Tate addition in London and the Birdsnest stadium for the Beijing Olympics to realize that.

Peter Zumthor has lost a bit of popularity, at least in the amount of press he receives, so it was nice to see one of his new projects in the November Architectural Review. He comes from a carpentry background in Switzerland. As a former master cabinet maker, his work has always been very beautifully detailed, as though it were a bespoke cabinet in its level of joinery. My colleague always used the word calm to describe the work of Zumthor as does the AR article to describe this project, the Diocesan Museum in Cologne, Germany. The detailing, as always, is immaculate. The project was guided by the need to preserve the ruins of nearly two millennia of civilization. These ruins are visible in galleries below. I am sure that for Zumthor this provided an opportunity more that a problem. While his building from the exterior appears a bit fortress like in its context it is well scaled and represents the beautiful work this master can produce. I recommend checking out the El Croquis magazine on Zumthor. It shows the quality of his work very well.