THERME VALS, SWITZERLAND BY AR.

PETER ZUMTHOR:
The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa. Designed by Architect Peter Zumthor, Built over the only thermal
springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland. Peter Zumthor designed the spa/baths which opened
in 1996 to pre date the existing hotel complex. The idea was to create a form of cave or quarry like
structure.
Mountain, stone, water building in the stone, building with stone, into the mountain, building out of
the mountain, being inside the mountain how can the implications and the sensuality in the
association of these words be interpreted, architecturally? The whole concept was designed by
following
up
these questions;
so
that
it
all
took
form
step
by step.
Peter Zumthor Therme Vals, edition Scheidegger&Spiess, p. 57

Our design ideas for the thermal bath included giant, hollowed out stone blocks. However, the largest
stone blocks that could be manufactured in Vals, transported and above all also be stacked up into
walls using manual labour, were comparably tiny, measured against the idea of the room height blocks
that we wanted to define our building. So, we decided to achieve the desired effect of the monolithic
look of our blocks with a sort of "stone textile", and have designed a joint pattern, which allowed us to
join the stones together to make a homogeneous looking wall. The joint pattern finally developed in
many work steps is based on the principle layering thin stone panels in three different heights: 31, 47
and 63 mm. These three layer heights run through the whole bath from top to bottom. Layer on layer.
Without
exception.
Peter Zumthor in Stein und Wasser KulturWinter 2003/04 (edited by Therme Vals)
[In stone and water - Culture winter]
The flank of the valley opposite the thermal baths, an immense, sweeping slope with small barns to
store hay; rectangular pastures, some mown, some for grazing, full of boulders, scored and inscribed
with paths and fences. The meadow carpet is lumpy. It covers the stony flank of the mountain.
Peter
Zumthor
Therme
Vals,
edition
Scheidegger&Spiess,
p.
47
The entire structure extends to a width of approximately 58 meters and cuts as far as 34 meters into
the slope in front of the main building of the hotel complex, a unit erected in the 1970s and which
stands at the northeastern corner of the property like a sweeping gesture with its four rows of loggias
overlooking the grass-covered roof of the Therme. Fifteen rectangular stone blocks ranging from three
to five meters in width and six to eight meters in length each support part of the roof. They are
composed according to a strict grid of perpendicular lines and stand like monoliths arranged in a
system
of
pinwheels.
Peter Zumthor Therme Vals, edition Scheidegger&Spiess, p. 95

The interview took place in his home and studio in Haldenstein, in the Swiss Graubunden. In it
Zumthor reveals that the original idea for Therme Vals was to hollow out the space upon which it
stands. "It was a quarry and then it became more of a construction site. The process was not deciding
shadow but letting the light in and letting the view come in," he says at one point. (Along the way)
"there were many moments of truth. At the end though, I judged with my heart. If I don't like it who
gives a hell about the rules? We start again. It takes time. Sometimes it's not easy to explain that to
clients. Sometimes people think they can order a Zumthor! If I have the feeling it's about ordering a
Zumthor building my pencil drops!"
THE MONASTERY OF LA TOURETTE BY AR.LE CORBUISER:
It was a priest, Fr. Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P. (1897-1954), who cleared the way for Le Corbusier to
design the Monastery of Sainte-Marie-de-La-Tourette (1957-60) for the Dominican community at
Eveux-sur-LAbresle outside Lyon, in France.
Like many Catholics, Fr. Couturier placed great importance on the incarnational nature of Christianity
and the role that art and architecture played in understanding the sacred. By contrast, Le Corbusier
concentrated his efforts on redefining artistic standards by glorifying industrial forms and promoting
deterministic belief in the advancement of civilization. Consensus among Le Corbusier scholars reveals
that he had no place for institutionalized religion within his ideal society. Nonetheless, Couturiers
philosophy of art and his personal friendship with Le Corbusier made the architect the obvious choice
to design a monastery rooted first in modernist art, secondarily in religion. By mistaking the spirit of
the age, or Zeitgeist, for the Holy Spirit, Couturier assisted in the production of structures by famous
modernist architects at the expense of the essential features of Catholic artistic work. Le Corbusiers
ideas began and ended with the concept that industrial society had an inherent form, an objective order
derived from the nature of man and the nature of machines, an ideal structure, which - if realized would bring prosperity, harmony, and joy. . . . For Le Corbusier, any industrial society must be
centrally located, hierarchically organized, administered from above, with the most responsible people
in the most responsible position.
Le Corbusier also was also intrigued by things spiritual, often speaking of laws of nature which hinted
at a divine order in geometry, light, and form. He wrote:

I am not a churchgoer myself, but one thing I do know is that every man has the religious
consciousness of belonging to a greater mankind, to a greater or lesser degree, but in the end he is
part of it. Into my work I bring so much effusion and intense inner life that it becomes something
almost religious.

In a 1961 letter declining a request for another church commission, Le Corbusier explained that he
designed La Tourette because its program and natural site intrigued him:
I built the Convent of La Tourette because the program (ritual, human scale, space, silence, etc.)
was favorable, as also were the landscape conditions exceptional. I am not a builder of churches.
Had you said to me, Will you create a place open all the year, situated on the hilltops in the calm and
the dignity, in the nobleness of the beautiful Jura site?, the problem could have been considered. It
was a problem of psychic nature and, for me, of decisive value
The intention of architect Le Corbusier was to give the monks what men today need most: silence and
peace This Monastery does not show off; it is on the inside that it lives. Although this was
ultimately achieved, there were still reservations about the size of some of the cells, as well as the
soundproofing and acoustics. Maintenance issues are still very prevalent today, with cracking concrete,
defective insulation, and dangerously installed electricity. Much of the personality of this building is
found in the interior, with the floor-to-ceiling glazing in the public areas, like the chapter room and
refectory with their commanding west-facing views over the valley, library, and church entrance. The
uneven spacing of the vertical concrete mullions, or ondulatoires, and the similar divisions and uneven
spacing of the horizontal components between them were fashioned according to the Modular system
of proportions of Le Corbusier.

Osama Khan-1036