the art of where: a secular retreat

Friday, March 12, 2010

a secular retreat

all imagery from living architecture blog

as many [or not so many] readers know, we here at taow are big, slobbering fans of peter zumthor and whatever is released from his office into the wild blue yonder. we just recently noticed the update over at the living architecture blog regarding 'a secular retreat' that the zumthor is currently working on. at first glance the concept model images seem crude and elementary, but rough texture and the hand made quality of the presentation is not only a trademark of PZ's craftsman background, but maybe that is the entire point of the project...

after all the chosen title 'secular' brings to mind some intriguing concepts [and meaningful interpretations] for a house:

Not specifically religious.

(Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.

Temporal; something that is worldly or otherwise not based on something timeless.

Happening from age to age.

Long-term.

(astrophysics) Of or pertaining to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion.

(atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.

[all definitions from Wiktionary]

but we must say that the suspense is killing us--what is the material palette? where is the site? is it this place mentioned in the photo caption called chivelstone, great britain? how many obscure places do we have to travel to see zumthor's projects? ; ]

in the between time, this vague and brief description will have to suffice for now:

Peter Zumthor is frequently described as the greatest architect at work in the world today, and has recently been awarded the internationally prestigious Pritzker Prize. He is famous for his baths at Vals in Switzerland, as well as for his Bruder Chapel outside Cologne in Germany and his Kolumba Museum in Cologne itself. He is a master of craftsmanship, and an expert in the use of natural materials, which gives his buildings an eternal quality. For Living Architecture, Zumthor is designing his first project in the UK – a hill-top retreat, to which people will be able to go for periods of sustained work and reflection.