Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Modern Architects

Who are Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron?:

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are two important Swiss architects known for innovative construction using new materials and techniques. The two architects have nearly parallel careers. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were born the same year, attended the same school, and in 1978 they formed the architectural partnership, Herzog & de Meuron. In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were chosen to share the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Born:

1950 in Basel, Switzerland

Education:

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland

Important Projects:

• 2008: Beijing National Stadium, Beijing, China
• 1999-2000: Apartment buildings, Rue des Suisses (Paris, France)
• 1998-2000 Roche Pharma Research Institute Building 92 / Building 41 (Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland)
• Tate Modern (London Bankside, UK)
• 1998-1999 Central Signal Tower (Basel, Switzerland)
• 1998 Ricola Marketing Building (Laufen, Switzerland)
• 1996-1998 Dominus Winery (Yountville, California, USA)
• 1993 Ricola-Euope SA Production and Storage Building (Mulhouse-Brunstatt, France)
• 1989-1991 Ricola Factory Addition and Glazed Canopy (Laufen, Switzerland)

Related People:

• Rem Koolhaas, Pritzker Prize Laureate, 2000
• I.M. Pei, Pritzker Prize Laureate, 1983
• Robert Venturi, Pritzker Prize Laureate, 1991

About Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron:

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed projects in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, the United States, and of course, in their native Switzerland. They have built residences, several apartment buildings, libraries, schools, a sports complex, a photographic studio, museums, hotels, railway utility buildings, and office and factory buildings.

Commentary on Herzog and de Meuron from the Pritzker Prize Committee:

Among their completed buildings, the Ricola cough lozenge factory and storage building in Mulhouse, France stands out for its unique printed translucent walls that provide the work areas with a pleasant filtered light. A railway utility building in Basel, Switzerland called Signal Box has an exterior cladding of copper strips that are twisted at certain places to admit daylight. A library for the Technical University in Eberswalde, Germany has 17 horizontal bands of iconographic images silk screen printed on glass and on concrete. An apartment building on Schützenmattstrasse in Basel has a fully glazed street facade that is covered by a moveable curtain of perforated latticework.

While these unusual construction solutions are certainly not the only reason for Herzog and de Meuron being selected as the 2001 Laureates, Pritzker Prize jury chairman, J. Carter Brown, commented, "One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity."

Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic and member of the jury, commented further about Herzog and de Meuron, "They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques."

Another juror, Carlos Jimenez from Houston who is professor of architecture at Rice University, said, "One of the most compelling aspects of work by Herzog and de Meuron is their capacity to astonish."

And from juror Jorge Silvetti, who chairs the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, "...all of their work maintains throughout, the stable qualities that have always been associated with the best Swiss architecture: conceptual precision, formal clarity, economy of means and pristine detailing and craftsmanship."