Among the dozens of projects mentioned by the Pritzker jury were the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany, a modern building set in the ruins of a late gothic church destroyed in World War II, and the Thermal Baths in Vals [Spa], Switzerland, a maze of pools enclosed by concrete and stone mined from the surrounding hills.

"When you are there, it is extraordinary how this monumental stone work just dissolves in the pleasure of its many surprises," architect and Rice University architecture professor Carlos Jimenez, a Pritzker juror, said of the baths.

"We are in a time of economic turmoil, and I think Zumthor's work reminds us that there is a luxury in architecture that can be found that has nothing to do with extravagant budgets and extravagant formal gestures," Jimenez said.