Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.
Yes, but my martini is still dry.
—Ian Fleming
Peter Zumthor's Therme is a super sexy environment. It's like a set from a James Bond film where one would expect to see only chiseled bodies silhouetted by the light that streams through the fissures in the monumental ceiling and filters amidst the interlocking volumes of space, grazing and shimmering against the massed surfaces of stone and water. Architecture students worldwide study this subterranean spa, dissecting the minutiae in hope of unearthing some secret, previously undiscovered essence. Mention Vals to any architect and there is an immediate association with Peter Zumthor’s Therme. The place is like a mystical holy ground, and many in the architecture world refer to a visit as a pilgrimage. And while there is a tremendous history of people and even the mythic gods traveling from afar seeking sacred rejuvenating waters, I'm certain today's pilgrims believe less that the water or land are holy than the architecture. This might have been at odds with the heart of the project because the work was never conceived as architectural tourism. Yet, because Zumthor was sensitive to the environment, to pre-existing conditions, to the community and infrastructure and the history of spas, architecture's disciples are given to a greater understanding of the essence of his spa project. Over one hundred and forty thousand people visit the Therme and enjoy the baths each year. The people gain insight into Vals, the small Swiss village that owes its ecological diversity to the force of water, having been carved by millions of years of rain and ice.
Vals, originally settled by herdsmen and farmers, is rich in woodlands and meadows, and home to the only natural hot spring in the Grison region of the Alps. The mineral water from this spring is split between the Therme and a bottling plant, now owned by Coca-Cola. At one end of the village is the Truffer Quarry, at the other end the bottling plant. Somewhere in between, a small collection of multi-story buildings is notched into the village hillside: the Therme baths and hotel.
The Valser Rhine flows with meltwater of two glaciers, through Zerveila, Vals, and then into the Anterior Rhine.
Vals.
Vals.
Vals.
Local stone as a retaining wall.
Vals.
Vals.
Local stone bridge crossing the Valser Rhine.
Local stone bridge crossing the Valser Rhine.
Local stone as embankment walls of the Valser Rhine.
Local stone as a bollard, defining a sitting area, and as paving in Vals Platz.
Vals Platz: Many of the buildings have roofs of local stone.
Vals hunting blinds.
Vals hunting blinds.
Vals pastures.
Vals local stone building.
Vals local stone agricultural building.
Grass roof of the Therme with fissures for light.
Relationship of an original hotel building to the Therme. The buildings connect underground.
An original hotel building with a local stone pathway system.
An original hotel building.
Past the quarry, up the mountain road, through a tunnel carved into the mountain, the Zervreila Dam is found. After WWII, hydroelectric plants were constructed in many alpine regions as literal symbols of power often without regard for cultural landscapes and communities. Villages were flooded. In Vals, however, the community became a partner in the Zervreila project and collected taxes and fees and met its own energy needs at a lower cost. Vals developed financial strength that led to the creation of a resort and thermal spa in the late 1950s. As time passed, though, the population of Vals began to decline; people were moving to larger cities. By the early 1980s, the hotel and spa had become defunct.
Top of the Zerveila Dam.
Zerveila Dam.
Zerveila.
Original hotel and pools. Photo taken 1968.
Original spa pools. Photo taken 1968.
In architectural discussions of Zumthor's Therme, the community redevelopment aspect of the project is practically never mentioned. The idea to take the bank-owned spa built in the '60s and revitalize it came from a few leading citizens of Vals, the owners of the Truffer Quarry: Pius, Pia and Mario Truffer. Zumthor's Therme would not exist without these people nor without community funding. At first, many of the villagers had opposed investing in the defunct spa, but eventually, through a referendum vote, the investment passed. The Therme was funded by a bank investment and from cash raised from each resident through tax increases. Today, the baths are the largest employer in the village and no one thinks it was a mistake. The community owns part of the Therme. Zumthor was selected as the architect not because he promised he would give the villagers exactly what they wanted but that he would give them a unique building that fit in Vals and honored the culture. The town had faith in the Truffers and thus in Zumthor.
Mario Truffer sadly passed away in 2015. He was a very skilled alpine skier. Pictured above, he is seen as the double for James Bond in the 1968 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Sokrates Truffer.
While I was a guest of the hotel, Ms. Monika Tscharf, the Chef de Recéption at the Therme, introduced me to Sokrates Truffer, the son of Pius and Pia. After studying English in the United States, Sokrates returned to Vals. It touched me that he felt so strongly about his village. It seemed he couldn't imagine not living there. He was kind and spent a great amount of time showing me the detailed operations of his family’s quarry. Albin Truffer founded the quarry in the 1950s. The rock that is quarried is a metamorphic stone called gneiss (pronounced like "nice"; the g is silent). It's also referred to as quartzite. Three hundred million years ago, the original stone of the region formed. Then, about fifty million years ago, the Swiss Alps began to rise in upward thrusts, with heat and pressure - metamorphic action - applied to the original rock matrix.
The rock face is machine-drilled and the holes are filled with black blasting powder.
Small controlled blasts limit destruction and waste.
Switzerland is very protective of the landscape. There are many environmental regulations for the operation of a quarry and the extraction zone is clearly defined. Within the currently defined boundary of the extraction zone, there is stone to last twenty-five years. Beyond this, it will be important to expand the extraction zone in collaboration with the local and state authorities. The machine above drills into the rock. A chair lift is seen above.
In the past, blasts were the main method of extraction. More recently, diamond wire cuts were introduced as a more gentle means to extract stone. The diamond wire cuts the rock face vertically and circular marks are left upon the face of the stone by the wire.
Large blocks of stone are removed with heavy equipment.
These stone blocks are stockpiled before being processed.
Cutting stone often involves a great deal of water. This water reduces heat build-up from the friction between blade and stone, and prevents mineral-filled stone dust from filtering into the air.
There are many types of machines and blades used to process the stone.
A vein cut slab shows the mineral veins running either lengthwise along the slab or vertically.
A face cut slab is sliced at a ninety degree angle to the mineral veins. It shows a cross section of the veins.
Much like the word Vals means Zumthor in the design world, the name Zumthor has great association with Vals gneiss. It is the primary finish material of the Therme. Sixty thousand individual slabs were used there. Zumthor specified three slab thicknesses: sixty-three, forty-seven and thirty-one millimeters. (These dimensions were chosen with a three millimeter mortar joint because this yields fifteen centimeters. Fifteen centimeters was chosen because it is the height of a single step and it became a basic unit of measure in the design for many other details in the building. In other words, the building's design relates directly to the basic human movement of climbing stairs.) By varying the thickness in the application and by keeping the slabs as long as possible, with careful attention to corners and mortar joints, the structure appears monolithic, patterns are avoided and the eye is at rest. The horizontal banding on a mass scale is an aesthetic emulated worldwide, owing its inception to Zumthor, who was honoring the natural rock formation found in Vals. The Vals stone is exported worldwide, as well.
Sokrates shared a secret with me. The finish of the stone is the same in every room of the Therme except one. Given that Zumthor and his staff studied intensely the intermingling of light and water and stone in order to create subtleties in atmosphere, and that I had spent several hours in the Therme without realizing the difference, I was intrigued. Sokrates asked me to guess which room it was. I did not guess correctly.
There’s a room I had begun to think of as the “sparkly room”. The published plans call it the Fountain Grotto, construction plans call it the Relaxation Grotto and the Therme currently calls it The Resonance Room. (I recommend reading page 92 of Peter Zumthor Therme Vals, the book of essays of Peter Zumthor and Sigrid Hauserwith with photos by Hélène Binet, published by Scheidegger & Spiess. I bought my copy at the entry to the Therme. Hannelore, the staff member at the desk, sold it to me. Cameras are not allowed inside the Therme; I wholeheartedly support this. I drew a little while inside but soon realized that the best source of information about the project is either the book or Sokrates Truffer.)
The Therme has revitalized the community. At the same time, architectural tourism is booming there. Currently, the U.S. architecture firm Morphosis has proposed a 381 meter tall mirrored skyscraper in the tiny village, called the 7132 Tower. Japanese architect Tadao Ando has proposed a sculptural landscape project: an abstract garden that is several hundred meters long, incorporating a Museum of Light, gathering places, plantings, water/ice elements, concrete and stonework. I visited the Therme in 2015 in order to experience the place before the tower was built. It's not clear to me that the citizens embrace these new design proposals, and I imagine the approval process will be a challenge, as the community is shaken, not stirred.
Photo by H. Binet
Photo by H. Binet
Photos copyright 2015 Jennifer Bloch and Lee Friedman, except where noted.