2009 Pritzker Prize for Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor

After winning the Praemium Imperiale last year, Zumthor now has received the world's most prestigious architecture award. Looking at the list of past Pritzker winners (Jean Nouvel, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry), this year's award couldn't have gone to a more different architect (yes, with a couple of exceptions).

What speaks to me in his work is how he creates austere spaces that are filled with the history and nature surrounding them. Most of his designs belong in non-urban environments, it seems, because that's where their minimalism isn't drowned out by the architectural noise of the city. The simplicity of buildings such as the hotel spa in Vals or the Sogn Benedetg chapel in Sumvitg strikes me as both essentially Swiss and Japanese.

The chapel also reminds me of vernacular architecture here in the Ozarks. Zumthor made it part of its landscape the same way Fay Jones put his Thorncrown Chapel on that hillside outside of Eureka Springs--using the materials, the light, and the stories of a place each architect was/is deeply familiar with.

Spa in Vals: Helene Binet; Sogn Benedetg chapel: Adrian Michael/Wikimedia; Thorncrown Chapel: Whit Slemmons