Peter Zumthor ‘Atmosphere’

After redirecting my project to look more closely to the idea of atmosphere, and more specifically the atmosphere created from the object which surrounds our home, I wanted to do some further reading. This lead me to read Peter Zumthor’s ‘Atmosphere’: a book exploring his ideas of atmosphere and what things can influence it.

He talks about the power of atmosphere as such: “we perceive atmosphere through our emotional sensibility - a form of perception that works incredibly quickly… Something inside us tells us an enormous amount straight away. we are capable of immediate appreciation, of a spontaneous response, of rejecting things in a flash.” Atmosphere can be influenced by people air, noise, sound, colour, material, textures, forms, object which can all have such a profound effect on how you remember and experience something. Within his book, Zumthor had written about 9 principles all of which were of interest; however, those that caught my attention gravity to the things which assure an atmospheric energy. These principles being:

The sound of space: “interiors are like large instruments, collecting sound, amplifying it, transmitting it elsewhere”

Surrounding Objects: “people interact with objects… you find things come together in a very caring, loving way, and that there’s this deep relationship”

The light of things: “Where the and how the light fell. Where the shadows were… the light of things is so moving to me that I feel it almost as a spiritual quality.”