The recipe to memorable architecture

Peter Zumthor’s excerpt on “Atmospheres” breaks down architecture into some of its more core values within design. Within the article, something I found inspiring was his break down of materiality as if it were a science experiment, or a recipe for a delicious apple pie. “I take a certain amount of oak and a different amount of tufa, and then add something else: three grams of silver, a key”, the micro and macro materiality decision made in a building are some of its core abilities to memorable.

 In a sea of architecture (the city) it has become more difficult then ever before to have a piece of architecture stand out from the rest. Zumthor speaks to the ability for a building to be memorable simply by a small, but what he feels to be crucial counter-top detail and its proximity to the wall. Heavy materials paired with light materials or light materials paired with other light materials, there are a thousand ways to put materials next to each other, but each architect has their own design input on what that should look like. Zumthor’s choices to almost create a pattern of heavy and light allows for the heavy to stand out as a callout in a light ground, almost as if the heavy protrudes out of the light. In my opinion, leveraging materials based on their pure physical definition to imply almost a metaphysical atmosphere creates a truly memorable building. Whether it is a micro or macro definition, the ability to create a narrative throughout a piece of architecture like Zumthor does is truly inspiring.