Herzog & de Meuron

After years of creating an architectural language of geometric forms and innovative façades, Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron became the first duo in history to win the Pritzker Prize in 2001. At the start of their careers, they attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, both graduating in 1975, and established their firm, Herzog & de Meuron, three years later in Basel.
Today some of their most recognizable works include the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, the structure famously known as the Bird’s Nest, designed in collaboration with artist Ai Weiwei; VitraHaus, their addition to the illustrious Vitra Design museum, which sits alongside buildings by Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid; and Prada’s Tokyo flagship store, a luxury goods destination designed with diamond-shaped panes of curved glass.
Their unconventional and often surprising approach to architectural design demonstrates their virtuosic ability not only to envision a new landscape for living, but also to create structures that continually provoke, challenge, and inspire.
Founders: Jacques Herzog
Pierre de Meuron
Founded: 1978
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Germany
New York City, USA
San Francisco, USA
London, UK
Hong Kong, China
Significant works and honours:
Projects: Tate Modern
Allianz Arena
Beijing National Stadium
M+ Museum
Elbphilharmonie
Awards: Pritzker Prize (2001)
Prix de l'Équerre d'Argent (2001)
Royal Gold Medal (2007)
Schock Prize (1999)
Stirling Prize (2003)
Design philosophy:
Herzog & De Meuron’s work can be roughly describe in several adjectives- minimalism and ornament, cosmetic and structural, image and body. Their designs have a common and similar prospective on nature, which makes them carry out a simplicity of their shapes that are usually described as a shape of a box. A shape of a box consists of a flat roof and large windows, which at the same time characterized their prototype buildings. Both architects carry out an “organic” philosophy, which means that their buildings are design to fit its natural surroundings.
Awards:
1999 Schock Prize
2001 Prix de l'Équerre d'Argent, for Apartment Buildings, Rue Des Suisses, Paris
2001 Pritzker Architecture Prize
2003 Stirling Prize for the Laban Dance Centre
2007 RIBA Royal Gold Medal and Praemium Imperiale
2009 RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the Beijing National Stadium
2014 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
2017 RIBA National Award 2017 for the Tate Modern Project
Style:
There have been a lot of discussions about whether Herzog & de Meuron has a specific style. Even though people have tried to describe an 'H&dM style', the office always declines to have one: In an interview, founding partner Jacques Herzog stated that Herzog & de Meuron
"never aspired to anything that might be called a typical style of our own. […] To this day, we do not want to [design a series] of iconic buildings that would instantly communicate "Herzog & de Meuron" - as opposed to the new, specific location that can be created and communicated by a building. In that respect it's not wise to represent a style or a certain taste. We say that over and over again not out of modesty or to castigate ourselves but because we want to maintain our independence and because we are curious about new possibilities.“
Quotes:
“A building always has an impact,” says Herzog, 72, speaking at the firm’s headquarters in Basel. “We’re not naive designers, and not interested in the most advanced stylistic gesture. New things have to be put together in a socially responsible way; otherwise, we’re dead.”
Their recent work at Prada Tokyo, the Barcelona Forum Building, and the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games suggest a changing attitude.
"In its physical and central diversity architecture can only survive as architecture, and not as a vehicle for some ideology or other.“ Jacques Herzog