First off, I am behind on posting the recent places I have visited (Basel and Chur) and I'm skipping ahead to Vals because of how much I admire this project. I will post those previous places soon. I discovered that Peter Zumthor also designed the Dorfbrücke (town bridge) in the middle of Vals, shown below.

My strong reverence for the Vals Therme began the moment I learned about it in architecture school. I know I am not the only one. This project might be the ultimate project for what I am seeking on this fellowship. It is deeply connected to its context and creates a holistic, poetic experience.

A typical roof in Vals made from slabs of local Gneiss stone. Every roof in the town looks like this. Supposedly, it lasts one hundred years.

This is the same Gneiss stone that is used on the previously shown roof. The stone is quarried locally and makes for a dependable and beautiful building material.

More information about the construction of the Therme in this article http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/documents/architecture-thinking-building-dimitrios-karaiskakis2.pdf