Architect Peter Zumthor

Thermal Baths Vals, Vals, Switzerland 1996
One of Zumthor's best known projects, the Thermal Baths Vals is an austere exercise in concrete and 60,000 slabs of locally quarried gneiss. Built into a hillside at a hotel about 120 miles southeast of Zurich, it it pares away almost everything but the experience of stone, vapor, water and light. Narrow slot skylights produce a dramatic line of light across the water.

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