The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, WindowsThe Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, FacadeThe Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, WaterfrontThe Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior PhotographyThe Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - More Images+ 16

  • Architects: Peter Zumthor
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  1996
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Andrea Ceriani
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Vitrocsa, Stonecon, Truffer Natural Stones
  • Lead Architects: Peter Zumthor, with Marc Loeliger, Thomas Durisch and Rainer Weitschies
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The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Andrea Ceriani

Text description provided by the architects. Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland, The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa in one which combines a complete sensory experience designed by Peter Zumthor.

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Andrea Ceriani

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. Working with the natural surroundings the bath rooms lay below a grass roof structure half buried into the hillside. The Therme Vals is built from layer upon layer of locally quarried Valser Quarzite slabs. This stone became the driving inspiration for the design, and is used with great dignity and respect.

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Fence, Deck, Handrail, Balcony

“Mountain, stone, water – building in the stone, building with the stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain – how can the implications and the sensuality of the association of these words be interpreted, architecturally?” Peter Zumthor

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Image 7 of 21

This space was designed for visitors to luxuriate and rediscover the ancient benefits of bathing. The combinations of light and shade, open and enclosed spaces and linear elements make for a highly sensuous and restorative experience. The underlying informal layout of the internal space is a carefully modelled path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points but lets them explore other areas for themselves. The perspective is always controlled. It either ensures or denies a view.

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Image 16 of 21

“The meander, as we call it, is a designed negative space between the blocks, a space that connects everything as it flows throughout the entire building, creating a peacefully pulsating rhythm. Moving around this space means making discoveries. You are walking as if in the woods. Everyone there is looking for a path of their own.” Peter Zumthor

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Exterior Photography, Waterfront
© Andrea Ceriani

The fascination for the mystic qualities of a world of stone within the mountain, for darkness and light, for light reflections on the water or in the steam saturated air, pleasure in the unique acoustics of the bubbling water in a world of stone, a feeling of warm stones and naked skin, the ritual of bathing – these notions guided the architect. Their intention to work with these elements, to implement them consciously and to lend them to a special form was there from the outset. The stone rooms were designed not to compete with the body, but to flatter the human form (young or old) and give it space…room in which to be.

The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor - Stairs

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Project location

Address:Graubünden, Switzerland

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor" 11 Feb 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/13358/the-therme-vals> ISSN 0719-8884

© Andrea Ceriani

瓦尔斯浴场 / Peter Zumthor

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