The Modernist Backlash

Earlier this month the Pritzker Prize was awarded. It’s the highest honor in architecture, sort of the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize of its field. The winner is a little-known Swiss architect named Peter Zumthor. He’s not a celebrity starchitect, and his list of built projects is surprisingly sparse.

The Los Angeles Times pointed out in their coverage that Peter Zumthor doesn’t really embody any of the current trends or fads in architecture, like social activism or sustainability, and that he embodies a more timeless aesthetic.

Here with his thoughts on the prize is our architecture afficianado and commentator Donald Kreis. He's also assistant director of The Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.

View a slideshow of Peter Zumthor's work

(Photo of Peter Zumthor's Saint Benedict Chapel by Rory Hyde via Flickr/Creative Commons)