ABSTRACT
Architecture is not a synchronic phenomenon but a successive one, made up of pictures adding themselves one to the other, following each other in time and space, like music. This chapter analyses of how the synthesis of arts works in the Philips Pavilion as compared to the Sound Box gives a better understanding of how the idea of "gesamtkunstwerk" is approached in these works. The notion of architecture as an instrument is fascinating especially when one considers Peter Zumthor's project for the 2000 Swiss Pavilion in Hanover, referred to at times as the Swiss Sound Box, which has a strong musical component to its design. The multi-media experience which involved all senses that promote the Swiss identity was an important dimension of the Sound Box it is the auditory component that is at the forefront. In the publication Swiss Sound Box, Zumthor shows the meticulous layout of projectors that choreograph the light scripts that describe and give information about Switzerland.
