CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds

Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron

Maya Sharon1
'We love to destroy the clichés of architecture. To do this most effectively, it is sometimes
useful to work with them'.2
- Jacques Herzog
The works of the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron are known today for their

complexity, ingenuity and mastery of materials and craftsmanship. There are many ways in which one

can categorize their works, however in this paper I will focus on their mid-early works between the

years 1989-1995, a period in which Herzog & de Meuron established a new type of wall-spatiality,

achieved by their distinctive use of materials and layered surfaces. The main aim of the paper is to

show how Herzog & de Meuron's works generate a duality of material and its absence, by employing

the spatial wall.3 The wall in the discussed works no longer functions as a clear-cut border between

inside-outside, but rather turns into an autonomous entity that is spatial, complex and multi-layered.

The spatial wall, as a unique compound of space, decoration and material, creates a space of meaning

where matter and the negation of matter coexist.

The paper will try to answer three key questions:

1. Can material be exploited in order to subvert materiality?

2. How does Herzog & de Meuron's spatial wall create a space of meaning, where a dialogue

between concrete materials and dematerialization takes place?

3. How do Herzog & de Meuron bring into being the multi-coding of materiality in their

architecture?

These questions will be examined in three works that exemplify the dialectics of materiality and

dematerialization: Ricola Factory and Storage House (Mulhouse-Brunnstatt, France, 1992-1993);

Pfaffenholz Sport Center (St. Louis, France, 1989-93) and the Signal Box (Auf dem Wolf, Basel,

1992-95). The paper will also present three types of transformation from a traditional wall into a

spatial wall, generated by the use of materials: transforming concrete materials into abstract

representation; transforming building materials into images and transforming cladding into

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

symbolic metonymy. Considering other works by Herzog & de Meuron, one can find similar wall

transformations in the Jussieu Library in Paris; in the Arts Center in Blois where strips of

electronic texts question tectonics; in the unique use of imagery on the envelop of the technical

library in Eberswalde and in the nearly transcendental stone walls of the Dominus winery in

California.4 In all of these works the complexity of expression shifts to the surface, nonetheless the

examined works in this paper raise crucial questions in architectural aesthetics regarding the

correlations between surface, materiality, abstraction and decoration. Discussing these correlations,

as well as referring to architectural theory and history, the paper will conclude with two types of

multi-coding, generated by the use of materials in Herzog & de Meuron's architecture: the multi-

coding of 'mirror' and 'veil'; and the multi-coding of architectural language, relating to the abstract

and the decorative.

I – Material Exploited in order to Subvert Materiality

A transformation of concrete materials into abstract representation can be seen in both the Ricola

Storage House and the Pfaffenholz Sport Center, in which the canonical singularity of materials, as

well as the conventional properties of each matter, is being subverted. These two examples serve as

archetypes for the shift in Herzog & de Meuron's oeuvre from materialization to dematerialization,

marking an epistemological shift from perception to conception.

The Ricola building, used as both a factory and

a storage house, is located in the industrial part of

Mulhouse on the Swiss-French border (fig. 1). The

walls are darkened with iron peroxide stain, while the

two long exterior walls and the canopies are made of

honeycombed polycarbonate panels, on which

Fig. 1 - Ricola Factory and Storage House
Photo by Rudolf Klein
silkscreen printings are employed. These printed

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

panels present a repeated image of a leaf, which signifies the company’s symbol (Ricola manufactures

herbal sweets) and is based on a photograph by Carl Blossefeldt.5

The leaf image eventually becomes the building material, by the

process of abstraction. First, the leaf has been abstracted into a schematic

photographic image by Karl Blossefeldt, and then repetitively reprinted

on the polycarbonate panels using a silkscreen printing technique. By

repetition, the images are turned into an 'abstract ornament', if we adopt

Arthur Roessler’s term6, that creates a spatial wall (fig. 2).

Another example for subverting materiality is the Pfaffenholz Sport

Center at St. Louis. The sport complex incorporates a swimming pool,

Fig. 2 – Ricola's Cantilever
tennis fields, soccer field, and so forth, however I will focus on the The Spatial Wall
Photo by Rudolf Klein
central block of the complex – a

large boxy structure (fig. 3). The applied materials in the

central block include printed concrete slabs and greenish

plexi-glass sheets, imprinted with straw-like pattern. The

straw pattern is a natural image schematized and abstracted by

a double-coded architectural representation that incorporates

Fig. 3 - Pfaffenholz Sport Center
Photo by Maya Sharon
two layers: the first layer represents the straw by a woodwool

panel, alluding to, the grass around the building. The second
r
layer is the attached plexi-glass sheet, imprinted with an

abstraction of the woodwool panels themselves (fig. 4).

We can claim, therefore, that on the one hand the

sheets of glass expose material, but on the other hand they

become an abstracted representation of material.7 In both

buildings, it is clear that the new architectural image

Fig. 4 - Detail of the Plexi Glass Sheets Imprinted
Herzog & de Meuron produce on the surface is with Straw-Like Pattern
Photos by Rudolf Klein

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

transformed into an abstract ornament that not only dematerializes material, but also expands the

meaning of architectural representation. Dematerialization becomes the central player in the 'hyper-

reality'8 created on the buildings' surface, a reality where material is dematerialized by its own

architectural abstraction.

II – The Spatial Wall as a Space of Meaning for the Dialogue between Concrete

Materials and Dematerialization

'We are not fascinated by advertising images – like Pop artists and Pop architects. We think it’s

more exciting to use pictures in such a way that they become walls and spaces, that an

interaction between surface and space, between artifice and nature, can be seen and

experienced'.9

- Jacques Herzog
The use of images as building materials, apparent in both

the Ricola building and Pfaffenholz Sport Center, transforms the

wall into a spatial wall – the wall, made of images, becomes

multi-layered, as well as multi-coded, while opening a space for a

dialogue between materiality and dematerialization. In the Ricola

building, the printed polycarbonate panels produce a play with

decorative imagery that changes constantly according to light and

weather. When rain is running down the walls the leaf images are

clearly seen, whereas in case of dark light the leaf images are

barely visible and the concrete polycarbonate panels are being

Fig. 5 – Ricola's Play with Materials,
Decoration and Transparency
exposed in their straightforward material essence (fig. 5). This Photo by Rudolf Klein

play with decoration, materials and transparency reveals the coexistence of material and its absence –

although materials are visible, at the same time they are dematerialized and de-canonized.

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

Moreover, in the Pfaffenholz Sport Center the dialogue between concrete materials and

dematerialization is displayed in the form of the veil. Similar to the Ricola building, the walls become

spatial by the use of repeated printed patterns on concrete slabs, picturing an image of water drops

(fig. 6). These printed decorative slabs are used as a building material, yet at the same time they form a

veil that negates materiality. The veil creates a textile effect that can be

associated with Gottfried Semper's Bekleidungstheorie (Theory of

Cladding). Due to the limited scope of this paper, I will not discuss the

correlations between Herzog & de

Fig. 6 – Pfaffenholz's Water
Drops Texture
Photo by Rudolf Klein
Meuron and Semper10, however it is

important to note that according to Semper the wall is a reminiscent of

a historical textile that used to function as a wall. Semper's terms

Wand/Gewand (Wall/Robe)11, can be applied to the Pfaffenholz Sport

Center: Herzog & de Meuron transform the wall into a 'robe' that

deploys the wall from its supportive function, while adding a

decorative quality that creates a dematerialized veil (fig. 7). The veil,

as a prominent feature of Herzog & de Meuron's architecture, will be Fig. 7 - View from Inside the
Pfaffenholz Center, The Veil
Photo by Maya Sharon
given a broader interpretation in the following part.

III – Multi-Coding of Materiality

The previous discussion concentrated on subverting materiality by transforming materials into

abstract representation and by transforming materials into images. The following discussion

concentrates on two types of multi-coded materiality manifested in the discussed works.

(a) Multi-Coding of Mirror and Veil

The terms 'mirror' and 'veil' are applied as part of my terminology in discussing the dialectics of

material and dematerialization. The formulation 'mirror and veil' derives from Oscar Wilde’s statement

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

in 'The Decay of Lying' (1889) that 'art is a veil, rather than a mirror'.12 I argue that these conceptual

terms can serve as useful theoretical tools in analyzing the mimetic function of architecture. We

should ask, then, how these terms can be applied to the realm of architecture: What is a veil in

architecture? Is it an envelop, or a symbolic cladding? What is a mirror in architecture? Can

architecture offer mimetic representation? There are no explicit answers to these intricate questions,

however in the limited scope of this paper I suggest that 'mirror' can be defined as a functionalist

mimetic cladding, whereas 'veil' can be perceived as an abstract, dematerialized symbolic cladding.

These terms can be demonstrated in one of Herzog & de Meuron's acclaimed projects – the Signal

Box.

The Signal Box is a six story insulated concrete structure covered by copper strips, located on the

train tracks near the SBB train station in Basel (fig. 8). The building’s

purpose is to monitor the railways on computer screens. The unique

envelop of copper strips changes in time and space, creating optic

effects that appear as decorative patterns (fig. 9). The spatial quality

of the surface is evident in the space between the envelop and the

office building itself – the envelop is

attached to the building by a system of

poles that create a space between the two. Fig. 8 – The Signal Box, View
from the Tracks
Furthermore, the spatial-decorative Photo by Ofer Sharon

cladding of the building appears as negating human presence, yet at the

same time the unique cladding turns the building into a familiar home-like

computer set among the railways. The resemblance to a computer is

Fig. 9 – Signal's crucial to the interpretation of the building as multi-coded: the treatment of
Optic Effects
Photo by Ofer Sharon
material transforms the cladding into a symbolic metonymy of the building

function, which is computerized monitoring of the railways. In the light of this analysis, we should ask

whether the material cladding of the Signal Box is mimetic, or non-representational. I argue that the

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

material in the Signal Box is speaking in two languages - functional and symbolic: it is both a mirror,

serving a mimetic, perceptual function; and a veil, serving a conceptual non-representational objective.

We can see a similar duality in the Pfaffenholz Sport Center, in which Herzog & de Meuron

play with mimesis and representation: material is mimetic in its imitation of the natural surrounding

(the straw refers to the grass, the prints of water drops allude to the swimming pool, etc.), nevertheless

it is also disconnected from its environment by its abstraction and symbolic signification. Thus, the

mirror-veil duality creates a space of meaning, where concrete materials coexist with dematerialized

abstract representation. Summarizing this part, we can conclude that materiality is ambiguous: it is

both a mimetic reflection and a decorative veil that challenges mimesis.

(b) Multi-Coding of Architectural Language – The Abstract and the Decorative

Another aspect of Herzog & de Meuron's multi-coded materiality concerns the juxtaposition of

an abstract rectangular structure and a spatial decorative surface, manifested in all three buildings

discussed in this paper. In the Ricola building and the Pfaffenholz Sport Center, the use of decorative

imagery as building material invites the viewer to indulge in decorative sensuality, yet the rectangular

boxy structure keeps the building impenetrable, aloof and obscure.13 Similarly, in the Signal Box, the

contrast between the decorative cladding and the rectangular structure calls for interpretation. The

question to be faced, then, is how can the decorative quality of material coexist with the abstract

quality of the boxy structure?

I argue that the coexistence of decoration and abstraction in Herzog & de Meuron's architecture

is a combination of two architectural languages. In terms of architectural history, Herzog & de

Meuron's use of the box positions their architecture on one side of architectural history – Modernism.14

Concurrently, I suggest that the issue of decoration constitutes a fundamental link between the

aesthetics of Fin de Siècle and Herzog & de Meuron's architecture: Herzog & de Meuron’s appeal to

decoration brings us back to Art Nouveau, to the concept of 'Art for Art’s sake' ('l’art pour l’art') 15, as

well as to Semper's Bekleidungstheorie. In Herzog & de Meuron’s works, material, used as decoration,

offers a new hierarchy between surface and essence. Decoration stresses the surface which ultimately

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

becomes an independent entity without any obligation to essence, i.e. to structure. This undercutting of

essence/structure constitutes one of the principal features of Fin de Siècle aesthetics, as manifested in

the architecture of Guimard and Horta; in the paintings of Gustave Moreau, Aubrey Beardsley and

Klimt; as well as in the literary works of Oscar Wilde (specifically in The Picture of Dorian Gray,

1891), Karl Huysmans; in Yeats’s poetry and so forth.16 Accordingly, we can argue that the use of

decoration in Herzog & de Meuron's works, perceived as an alternative formal language that

challenges mimetic representation, positions their architecture on another side of the historical timeline

– the end of the nineteenth century.17

As fig. 10 illustrates, two languages

Decorative Abstract
coexist in Herzog & de Meuron's Language Language

architecture: the decorative language, Historical Historical

Context Context
emerging from Fin de Siècle aesthetics, and
• Art Nouveau • Modernism
• Fin de Siecle Aesthetics
the abstract language, emerging from • Mies van der Rohe’s Box
• Muslim Architecture
• Semper’s Bekleidungstheorie • Abstract Art
Modernism. I argue that these two

languages are both non-representational and Dematerialization

Spatial Wall
are ultimately leading to dematerialization.
Fig. 10 – Decoration and Abstraction in Herzog &
The spatial wall in Herzog & de Meuron's
de Meuron's Architecture
works is the offspring of these two

languages – it is not only a compound of decoration and abstract space, but also a compound of two

architectural languages and a meeting point between a dematerialized decorative surface and an

abstract structure.

* * *

In conclusion, the complexity of Herzog & de Meuron's architecture is apparent in their use of

the spatial wall as an innovative stage for the fascinating dialogue between concrete materiality on the

one hand, and dematerialization on the other hand. Only three examples were discussed in this paper,

but many of Herzog & de Meuron's works exemplify the dialectics of materiality and

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

dematerialization. As I have tried to show, it is the meticulous utilization of materials that ultimately

leads to the absence of matter – material becomes mimetically double-coded and dematerialized by its

exploitation.

In the light of our discussion, the following quote can be applied to the perception of materiality

in Herzog & de Meuron's architecture. Gerhard Mack, relating to Herzog & de Meuron's surfaces,

argues that

'The surface becomes a veil […] It lends the invisible a perceivable face and becomes an

emblem for an absentee'.18

We can expand Mack's argument and claim that not only the surface 'lends the invisible a perceivable

face', but also material, in the hands of Herzog & de Meuron, becomes the visible presentation of the

conceptual absence of matter.

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cath/ahrc/congress/2004/programme/abs/131.shtml

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

END NOTES
1
The paper is based on my M.A. thesis – Maya Sharon, A Dialogue between the Abstract and the Decorative: Herzog & de

Meuron's Decorative Box, (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2001).

2
Qtd. in The Pritzker Architecture Prize, 2001: Presented to Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, (Los Angeles: Jensen

& Walker, 2001), p. 11.

3
In an interview with Alejandro Zaera, Jacques Herzog renounces that 'Designing and detailing a building thus becomes a

mental trip into the interior of a building. The exterior becomes like the interior. The surface becomes spatial'. Qtd. in

Alejandro Zaera, 'Continuities: Interview with Herzog and de Meuron', El Croquis: Herzog and de Meuron 1983-1993 60

(1993), p.20.
4
Wilfried Wang refers to Herzog & de Meuron's 'transcendence of matter' in his analysis of materiality in their works, see-

Wilfried Wang, Herzog & de Meuron, (Basel: Birkhauser, 1998), p. 15.

5
See the analysis of the Ricola Factory in El Croquis 84 (1997), pp. 94-95.
6
Arthur Roessler associated abstraction with ornament by offering the term 'abstract ornament', that was introduced by the

'new art' (non-representational art). The correlations between the ornament and non-representational art are explored in

David Morgan, 'The Idea of Abstraction in German Theories of the Ornament from Kant to Kandinsky', The Journal of

Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50 (1992), pp. 231-242.

7
Jeffrey Kipnis, 'A Conversation with Jacques Herzog', El Croquis 84 (1997), p. 12.
8
William J.R.Curtis, 'Enigmas of Surface and Depth: The Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron', El Croquis 109-110

(2002), p. 37.
9
Qtd. in Yvonne Volkart, 'Herzog and de Meuron: Giving a Glow to a Given Trace', Flash Art 185 (November-December

1995), p. 72.
10
The relevance of Semper to Herzog & de Meuron is based on:

a. Herzog & de Meuron's writings – see Jeffrey Kipnis, 'The Cunning of Cosmetics: A Personal Reflection on the

Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron', El Croquis 84 (1997), pp. 22-28.

b. The critic Gerhard Mack argues for an evident influence of Semper on their work – Gerhard Mack, Herzog & de

Meuron 1989-1991: The Complete Works, (Basel: Birkhauser, 1997).

c. David Leatherbbarrow and Moshen Mostafavi, Surface Architecture, (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002).
11
Wolfgang Herrmann, Gottfried Semper: In Search of Architecture, (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 1984).
12
Qtd. in Karl Beckson ed., Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890’s: An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose, (Chicago:

Academy, 1981), p. 184.

13
Mack, p. 67. Mack calls this building 'autistic' and 'inward looking'.

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CongressCATH 2004: The Architecture of Philosophy/The Philosophy of Architecture, University of Leeds
Session: Architecture Matters, Maya Sharon: “Material and its Absence in the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron”

14
Based on the recurrent boxy structure in their works, I suggest that their boxes derive from the Modernist language,

specifically from Mies van der Rohe’s box. Although Herzog & de Meuron do not refer to Mies as a direct influence on

their works, I do find his box relevant to our discussion. Based on Mies’s theories, my suggestion is that the appearance of

an envelop that wraps Herzog & de Meuron’s buildings is parallel to Mies’s skin that wraps the body (=building). For

further discussion, see - Fritz Neumeyer, The Artless Word: Mies van der Rohe on the Building Art, (Cambridge Mass.:

MIT Press, 1991); Jean-Louis Cohen, Mies van der Rohe, (London: E & FN Spon, 1996).
15
For further discussion of Art for Art's sake, see - Beckson, p. xxiii.
16
For a discussion of decoration as a dominant principle in Fin de Siècle, see - John R. Reed, Decadent Style, (Ohio:

Athens, 1985).
17
Considering the cultural and historical context of Fin de Siècle, one can claim that art was no longer serving mimetic

intentions that tied the artist to the visible, but rather gradually began serving symbolic, non-representational intentions.

This interpretation of Fin de Siècle aesthetics is based on the following sources:

a. Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin de Siècle Culture, (New York: Oxford UP,

1986).

b. Henri Dorra, ed., Symbolist Art Theories, (Berkley: California UP, 1994).

c. Holbrook Jackson, The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Century,

(London: Cresset Library, 1988).

d. Nurit Kedem, Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism, (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv UP, 1987).

e. Lara Vinca Masini, Art Nouveau, trans. Linda Fairbairn, (New York: Arch Cape, 1987).

f. Christopher Nassaar, Into the Demon Universe: A Literary Exploration of Oscar Wilde, (New Haven: Yale UP,

1974).

g. Robin Spencer, The Aesthetic Movement: Theory and Practice, (London: Studio Vista, 1972).
18
Qtd. in Mack, p. 22.

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