Swiss architect wins top honour 瑞士建筑师赢得最高荣誉

The most prestigious¹ award for architecture, the Pritzker Prize, has been awarded to the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

建筑学界最有声望的奖项，普立兹克奖，被授予给瑞士建筑学家彼得祖索尔。

Zumthor is known for quietly elegant buildings

The prize, worth $100,000, is given for a body of work across a career, and is mainly valued for the prestige and commissions（委任状，佣金） it can bring.

Zumthor's works are found mainly in his native Switzerland, as well as elsewhere in Europe and the US.

 The thermal² baths at Vals are Zumthor's best-known work     

His most famous commission is the thermal（热的） baths in Vals, Switzerland.

Peter Zumthor is about as far as its possible to be from the star names who have recently dominated architecture.

He has worked in his native Switzerland for the past 30 years and has become known for quietly elegant museums, housing complexes（复合物） and hotels with a fondness for using natural materials and a great interest in the the interior（内部的） spaces he creates.

If you think of the big name star architects shouting "look at me", then Zumthor whispers.

He trained as a cabinet maker³ and there's a strong feel of craft and care to his work.

He says he doesn't ally himself to an ideology⁴（观念学，形态意识） or school of architecture, but aims above all at creating an interior suited to place and use, simple principles aimed at producing human architecture.

The interior of Kumthor's "field chapel⁵" keeps the imprint⁶ of tree trunks

One extraordinary recent building is a chapel built by wrapping concrete round a wigwam（棚屋，简陋的小屋） structure of tree trunks.

Zumthor then burnt away the trunks, leaving the imprint（印记，痕迹） of the wood as the texture⁷ of the interior, which retains the smell of charred⁸（烧焦的） wood.

Zumthor is said to turn down most requests to design, embarking⁹（着手） only on projects he feels a passion for and which he then oversees¹⁰（了望，监督） from start to finish.

His buildings have been described as both humble¹¹ and bold.

Zumthor said the award was a "wonderful recognition".

"That a body of work as small as ours is recognized in the professional world makes us feel proud and should give much hope to young professionals that if they strive for quality in their work it might become visible without any special promotion," he said.