Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron - the dynamic duo of architecture

You only got on these pages by chance, and you don't have a real connection to art? For example, because you are not surrounded by art every day in your everyday life? That is not entirely true for many residents in Germany.

Because they are surrounded by art every day , even if it does not hang on their living room wall, at least if they do not live in a remote museum village and never go to a larger place.

Every day they are surrounded by an art that sometimes changes our cities sensitively, but often simply fits cautiously, but has definitely been considered art for a long time: architecture .

Many of the buildings that form and change the face of our cities and municipalities are clearly viewed as art. Regardless of whether it is buildings that clearly compete with the claim to realize art in public space or whether it is more of a building works that transform traditional architecture into today.

Such as the buildings of the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron , who wonderfully bring buildings merging with the surrounding area, but also clearly outstanding new constructions to our cities. Both architects were born in 1950, both ended their architectural studies at the Federal Technical University of Zurich in 1975 with the diploma, both of them worked as assistants there. In 1978, Herzog and de Meuron founded their architecture firm in Basel .

The development of their buildings to elements of almost organically acting in the grown environment started slowly, in 1979 with private orders such as a blue facade, which followed some unusual houses made of plywood or as a concrete skeletal building in the early 1980s. Even in the beginning, it was often orders in which living should be connected to work or with the collecting and exhibition of art or with another special purpose.

From 1987 the orders for the first larger projects, the Pilotengasse residential complex in Vienna (completed in 1991) came with around 200 houses that group around their center in curved lines, the gallery house of the Goetz Collection in Munich, an impressive solitaire that naturally fits into the dense tree population of the building site.

This was followed by various works for public space such as a student dormitory in Antibes, France (1990 - 1992), project work for museum extensions and libraries, and soon the designs developed unusual glass facades, e.g. B. for the residential and commercial building on Schützenmattstraße in Basel and the office building, which was redesigned in new transparency, a large insurance company in Basel (both ended in 1993).

Projects such as the “Stellwerk 4 on the Wolf” in Basel (1988-1994), a laboratory for the pharmaceutical company Novartis (1992-1993), the private Koechlin Haus (1993-1994) and other buildings in Basel and in the surrounding area also benefited from straight forms

straightforwardness often dominated so far , the designs subsequently became more freely and more sensitive, and the orders also came from a distance. Herzog & de Meuron received the order for the creation of a manufacturing building for Ricola Europe in Brunstatt in France (1993-94), which received an extremely interesting stem that the facade of a Lucerne pharmacy was given an unusual green glazing, in 1994 the order for the urban renovation of the dismantling settlement “Neustädter Feld” was also given in Magdburg.

The first project work for museum buildings, other art -mounting buildings and new bank buildings of domestic or foreign clients are also during this time.

From 1994 to 1997 Herzog & de Meuron also realized its first important cultural buildings : The caricature and cartoon museum in Basel was equipped with a completely unexpected and modern inner life and a new building on the back behind its late Gothic facade and a new building on the back, the as reserved and extraordinary studio of the painter and conceptual artist Rémy ZaGG in Mulhouse-Pfastatt, France according to your design.

This was followed by some buildings that fit into the landscape seamlessly of design and floor plan, but are all the more sensational in detail: the building of the Dominus Winery in Yountville in California with its facade made of stone -filled gabions seems to have always been in Napa Valley.

However, this impression does not arise without tricky tutoring: It is forced by the fact that the gabions are not only filled with stones, but also with a broken glass that makes the cover translucent. The library of the University of Sustainable Development in Eberswalde also simply looks like a very simple cuboid from the outside.

Until the viewer takes a closer look at the facade that appears reserved and discovered the photographs of the artist Thomas Ruff , which were printed on the entire outer skin of the building in a special procedure and give it information about what he will find in the library.

At the turn of the millennium, more and more builders of many nations became aware of the architects, at the latest with the project for the Tate Modern in Londonthe architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron international became known.

This construction project dealt with the Bankside Power Station, an oil -fired power plant on the south bank, which has been unable to provide economically energy since 1981, for art.

Herzog & de Meuron won the tender in 1995, in 2000 the Tate Gallery of Modern Art, the persistent and unexpectedly large rush has already led to the planning of an extension since then.

stadium buildings could be planned more independently of an immediate environment and thus also more spectacular , with the St. Jakob Park in Basel, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Nation Stadium Beijings for the 2008 Olympic Games were able to shape three impressive sports arenas. As exceptional as these stages look, the architects have nevertheless managed to combine today's requirements, history and traditions in these buildings.

Similarly, the design by Herzog & de Meuron for the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie , which the Hamburg Senate selected in 2005, should also create a new ensemble with completely new uses through the conversion and expansion of an old building.

In addition to its headquarters in Basel, the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron today has branches in Munich and London, Barcelona, ​​San Francisco and Tokyo, in which around 330 employees work. In the course of time, several other partners have been added, the founders Herzog and de Meuron also teaching tasks , at the local ETH Zurich and at Harvard University.