Herzog & de Meuron

Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. is a Swiss architecture firm headquartered in Basel (Switzerland), founded by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

Herzog & de Meuron was founded in Basel in 1978.

In addition to their architectural practice, Herzog and de Meuron served as professors at ETH Zürich from 1999 to 2018, where they co-founded ETH Studio Basel in 1999 alongside architects Roger Diener and Marcel Meili within the department of architecture.

They have also held teaching roles as visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, with Jacques Herzog serving as a visiting tutor at the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in architecture.

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", in reference to HdM's use of exterior materials and treatments, such as silkscreened glass.

Architecture critic and Pritzker juror Ada Louise Huxtable summarized HdM's approach stating, "They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques."

The firm was listed as "one of the most admired design companies in the world" in The New York Times Magazine in 2006."

As part of the urban development project known as HafenCity, the Hamburg government approved the construction of the Elbe Philharmonic designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

On a former warehouse in the port of Hamburg, rises a huge glass sail that houses a large concert hall, offices, and a hotel, while the former warehouse is used as a parking structure.

Their recent work at Prada Tokyo, the Barcelona Forum Building, and the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games suggest a changing attitude.

The shapes and forms of some of the works suggest art glass and objects d'art that one would see on a coffee table, like an art deco ashtray or quirky container for chocolates – a building becomes a blown-up version of desk art because the computer can do it, mimic the plasticity of the medium, and make it possible as a feat of engineering.

Herzog & de Meuron have faced criticism for their vision for migrant workers in Beijing during the construction of the Beijing National Stadium.

In a July 2008 interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Jacques Herzog was criticised for not having done more to ensure the conditions under which migrant workers constructed the stadium by the interviewer, to which Jacques Herzog responded that the influence of the architect on the construction process is declining rapidly.

On the other hand, some scholars, such as Deyan Sudjic, have stated that the very building of the stadium sent a signal from the Western architecture firm to the Chinese government to change societal norms.

However, others have argued that this statement would go with any stadium design, decreasing the potential of the signal.

The inaugural concert was held in January 2017.

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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."