THOMAS DURISCH

, born 1963 in Minneapolis, grew up in Binningen near Basel. He graduated in architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, in 1990 and  worked at Atelier Peter Zumthor 1990–94. In 1995 he established his own studio in Zürich. He has been curator of the exhibitions Peter Zumthor – Buildings and Projects 1986–2007 at Kunsthaus Bregenz (2007) and the LX Factory Lisbon (2008), and Architectural Models Peter Zumthor at Kunsthaus Bregenz (2012–2014).

PETER ZUMTHOR

, born 1943, grew up in Oberwil near Basel. Following an apprenticeship as cabinetmaker he studied interior design, design and architecture at the School of Applied Arts in Basel and the Pratt Institute in New York. He worked at the office for the preservation of of historical sites and buildings of the Swiss Canton of Grisons in Chur for ten years before establishing his own architectural office in Haldenstein, Switzerland, in 1978. He has been a professor at the Università della Svizzera italiana’s Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio 1996–2008 and also held visiting professorships at several international universities, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Peter Zumthor has received numerous prizes, including the world’s most prestigious architectural awards: Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture (1998), Japan’s Praemium Imperiale (2008), Pritzker Architecture Prize (2009), and the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal (2012). In 2009 he was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.