The Peter Zumthor-designed St. Benedict Chapel in Switzerland.

As part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A., LACMA features The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA, an exhibition about the proposed future of the museum's campus. Installation view, The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor reconsiders LACMA, June 9–September 15, 2013. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Photo ©2013 Museum Associates/LACMA

2011: Peter Zumthor Wrapped in stark, black wood, Swiss architect Peter Zumthor’s Serpentine scheme presented a frame for Piet Oudolf’s lush garden, a use of color and space that manages to create a secret garden in an already outdoor space. Photograph © 2011 Walter Herfst

Peter Zumthor, the Swiss architect who won the Pritzker Prize in 2009, developed this line of condiment vessels.

The peaceful chapel interior.

The entire house is painted in one color: Sherwin Williams' Ibis White.

The couple picked inexpensive white porcelain tiles for the tub and shower, but splurged on a Carrara marble countertop for the double vanity. The medicine cabinets are by Fresca.

In the kitchen, the couple kept the old oak cabinetry but refinished it. “We wanted a very clean look, so we opted for no hardware and painted it the same color as the walls,” Niffenegger says. They upgraded the countertops with leathered black pearl granite. A Louis Poulsen pendant light hangs over the sink, a leftover from the original construction. “Like any good Swiss, we have a Nespresso machine,” Niffenegger jokes.

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor— himself considered a bit of a enigma in a world that lauds celebrity designers—built the tiny Bruder Klaus Field Chapel in western Germany in 2007. The structure was created by arranging 112 spruce trees, pouring concrete on top until it set, then burning the wood, leaving a charred interior cavity.

My first stop was Zumthor's celebrated St. Benedict Chapel in the snug village of Sumvitg. Designed in 1988, this serene, mysterious structure was built before Zumthor was an international household name.

Kolumba, Peter Zumthor, 2007, silver gelatin print.

Kapelle fur den heiligen Bruder Klaus, Peter Zumthor, 2009, silver gelatin print.

The Sea Ranch Chapel by Hubbell and Hubbell

The open staircase includes a lot of glass and is a focal point of the home, says Niffenegger. The staircase leads to a loft upstairs and three bedrooms on the lower level. The master bedroom sits on the second floor. Red oak hardwood floors run throughout the residence.

Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel (2007), in western Germany, shares the Ronchamp chapel’s gentle, unorthodox spirituality.

Cross laminated timber is used for the interior because of the area's rich woodworking tradition, a conscious material choice by the architects to warm up what could easily be a cold type of building.

Tria Studio designed a farewell chapel on the grounds of a cemetery in Slovenia's Tuhinj Valley. [via Dezeen]

Peter Zumthor, Brother Klaus Chapel, Mechernich, Germany

Custom built cedar window frames make up several ‘window walls’ in the house, offering views of the North Carolina woods and plenty of natural light.

Peter Zumthor, Brother Klaus Chapel, Mechernich, Germany

E. Fay Jones, Thorncrown Chapel (1980) This is not a still from Game of Thrones, but the story of this unique chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is just as fantastical. Jim Reed hired Frank Lloyd Wright associate E. Fay Jones to build the chapel as a waystation of sorts for visitors on his land, who passed through seeking the magnificent views of the Ozark hills. From the pine cut thin so it could be easily carried inconspicuously through the woods to the constantly shifting shadows created by the grid of cross trusses, Thorncrown is a place, as Jones said, “to think your best thoughts.” Photo courtesy David Holmes, Creative Commons

Bet you didn't know that Pritzker-Prize winning architect Peter Zumthor studied at Pratt as an exchange student in 1966! Pictured here is one of the architect's most celebrated works, the spa at Therme Vals in Switzerland.

Niffenegger and Zeller put in over $150,000 for the renovation. The cedar home serves as a minimalist backdrop for their modern classic furniture. The window walls are just as charming after dark, says Niffenegger. “At night, one can see just how much glass the house has—it really glows.”

Via Inhabitat, the architects explained the reasoning behind the wooden skin, saying that, “the outer shell serves as a filter of the view outside, implying the start of a religious spatial experience.” Inside, a bright white octangonal floor plan is illuminated by reflected natural light.

Hiroshi Nakamura's Ribbon Chapel in Hiroshima orients two asymmetrical winding pathways that connect at a rooftop apex.

The curling "ribbons," intersected by glass cathedral walls, rise to a central oculus for a sublime effect.

AZL Architects designed a riverfront chapel in Nanjing that glows like a lantern thanks to a semi-transparent wood skin wrapped around a volume that peaks in a 40-foot-high V. [via Inhabitat]

Kiss Chapel (New York, United States: 2011) A Central Park pop-up celebrating marriage equality, this helix of honeycomb cardboard by Z-A Studio is itself a metaphor for the institution of marriage, since the two pillars can’t stand without each other. A dozen couples tied the knot under the temporary structure, which was conceived of and constructed in five days. Photo by Roman Francisco

Walter A. Netsch Jr., Cadet Chapel (1959) Looking more like a space-age battleship than a house of worship from certain angles, architect Walter A. Netsch Jr.’s futuristic temple is an angular assemblage of five-ton metal tetrahedrons, built out of the same aluminum panels as jet fighter wings. Winner of the American Institute of Architects' 25 Year Award and a United States National Historic Landmark, the set of 17 spires might as well be a squadron screaming towards the heavens. Photo courtesy David, Creative Commons

I.M. Pei, Luce Memorial Chapel (1963) When architect I.M. Pei designed this chapel for Tunghai University in Taiwan, he had to take local conditions, like typhoons and earthquakes, into account. His plan, which, included a curved roof of glazed, diamond-shaped tiles and interior ribs of reinforced concrete that run like ribbons towards the cross mounted on the roof, was an elegant solution to the challenges of the local environment. Photo courtesy Valter Wei, Creative Commons

“The house features a nice mix of straight lines and curves,” says Niffenegger. The curved walls also include niches to display photos and art. In the sitting area, the cedar tongue with groove ceiling is on display.

Clerestory windows, set into the brick facade with fins, rings the top of Níall McLaughlin Architects's chapel at Ripon Theological College in Oxford.

The massing and materials are in response to existing surroundings, with use of rendered brickwork, natural stone, mesh, and patinated copper sheet, as seen applied to the walls and ceiling of the chapel's sanctuary. [via Architizer]

The Chapel of St. Lawrence by Avanto Architects, which opened in 2010, is set in a historic site in Vantaa, Finland. The new building links the town's old medieval stone church and bellcote to a new, modern volume.

A timber glulam structure forms trusswork beneath a lime plaster ceiling in the main nave of McLaughlin's chapel. [via Niall McLaughlin Architects]

St. Bride's Chapel, 1963. East Kilbride, Lanarkshire.