JACQUES HERZOG AND PIERRE DE MEURON

INTRODUCTION

In this research paper I present about Herzog and de Meuron. The

paper contains their biography and theory. Some of there works
and ideas are critisised by their opponent so I have indluded this
critics on the paper.

When an exhibition provided the presenter come up with his or her

strong idea. This is what we see in the exhibition. The paper
also contains an exhibition of Herzog and de Meuron with their
strong idea. These two architects have many works which are
also included in this research with their detailed description.
JACQUES HERZOG AND PIERRE DE MEURON’S BIOGRAPHY
Jacques Herzog and Pierre De born in Meuron were Basel in 1950. Herzog
had born April 19 and de Meuron had born May 8. They are Swiss
architects. In 1975 graduated with degrees after study of architecture at
the Swiss federal technical university (ETH) - Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule in Zurich. In 1977 were assistants to Professor Dolf Schnebli
at the ETH Zurich. In 1978 they founded their own office called Herzog &
de Meuron in Basel. In 1983 Herzog was a guest professor at Cornell
Universities Ithaca campus in New York. In 1989 and 1991 both were
guest professors at Harvard University, Cambridge and at Tulane
University, New Orleans respectively.

Herzog and de Meuron got different awards at different time. In 1987 they got
Architecture prize from Akademie der Künste (Academy of the Arts) in
Berlin. In 1988 The Andrea Palladio International gave them Prize for
Architecture in Vicenza, Italy. In1999 they got Schock Prize. In 2001 both
accept Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates. And also they took the 2003
Stirling Prize for the Laban dance center.

Herzog and de Meuron provided many exhibitions. In 2002/3 an exhibition

called "Archaeology of the Mind" took place at Centre Canadien
d'Architecture, Montréal. At the same place they present an exhibition
"Herzog & De Meuron: Natural History" in 2003.In Rotterdam also took
place an exhibition called "No. 250. An Exhibition: Beauty and Waste in
the Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron" in 2004/5.
HERZOG AND DE MEURON’S IDEA (THEORY)
"Herzog & de Meuron's work has infused architecture with an aesthetic energy
that engages the beholder through both sensorial and intellectual pleasure. . .
. It is impressive to notice that 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."
- Jorge Silvetti, Chairman, Department of Architecture, Harvard University,
Graduate School of Design

To Herzog and de Meuron, architecture is the attempt to make the invisible

visible. They also said that entering the architectural sphere create a fully
spatial experience in some ways stronger than sight.
Herzog and de Meuron’s early works were part of reductivist modernity that belongs
on the same level to the minimalist art of Donald Judd (American Minimalist
Sculptor, 1928-1994). However, their recent work at Prada Tokyo, the Barcelona
forum and the Beijing Olympics stadium suggest a changing attitude.
Note: reductivism (minimalism) is an art movement in sculpture and
painting that began in the 1950s and emphasized extreme simplification of
form and color.

Herzog and de Meuron give primacy for material usage on all their projects. They
follow boxy modernism but this concept changed to volumetric prisms of
equal if not greater presence.
CRITICS OR OPINION ON HERZOG AND DE MEURON’S IDEA
FROM THEIR OPPONENT

On the June 2000 Aftershock /Metropolis Magazine written by Ken Coupland there is
critics on one of Herzog and de Meuron’s work San Francisco’s M.H. de Young
Museum. Ken wrote lot critics that come from different people. According to Ken
writing public opposition came on the proposed building as a featureless, shed-
like box. In October 21 architects criticized the new design for its boxy
appearance, poorly defined entrances, impractical materials, lack of contextuality,
and--in what’s emerging as a deal breaker--the placement and visual impact of a
strangely skewed, asymmetrical 160-foot tower.
The one who mentioned on the magazine is Aaron Betsky, the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art’s curator of architecture, design, and digital projects, calls
the proposed building “a fantastic development,” then adds, “Herzog and de
Meuron are among the few leading architects today who are actually not very
good at presenting their work in drawings and models, and I think that’s created
difficulty for them here. It’s only when you experience their buildings, or see
photographs of them, that you really understand the high quality of their work.”
Finally Ken said that whatever Herzog and de Meuron’s plan turns out to be--
Modernist masterpiece or box shed--it’s not likely to be accepted by people.

Herzog and de Meuron’s “Perception Restrained” exhibition in Museum of Modern Art

(MOMA) has got many critics from their opponents. In the exhibition there were
small slits in the walls just below eye level. Casey Zak (1st Year Finance PhD
Student at the University of Rochester) didn’t like the slits and the exhibition at all.
He says, ” The slit represents how little of our attention really gets delivered to the
art, and the small and cramped display rooms show how the art is being
compressed into a conceptual space which is unjustly small and confining. Neat.”
and he adds, “To me, this felt like an exhibit born of a critical understanding so
abstruse that it has lost all contact with human nature, and replaced the “viewer”
with some inhuman construct. There are artful ways to channel a viewer’s focus
by restricting perspective. I also believe that it is possible to channel
concentration by providing clever reminders of those thoughts that lead the mind
astray. But H&M have not done this. They reinforce and amplify the distractions
which they claim to diminish, and render the art itself all but invisible.”
HERZOG AND DE MEURON’S EXHIBITION

Herzog and de Meuron provide many exhibitions from which the exhibition take place
in Walker Art Center and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) are mentioned. In
Walker Art Center an exhibition entitled “In Process” presented by Herzog and de
Meuron in November 5,2000-February 11,2001. In the exhibition works presented
by models, drawings, photographs, and videos. In the exhibition there were
interesting things done by Herzog and de Meuron. The common material of the
exhibit: are acrylic cases, sheer curtains, slide projectors, and video monitors.
Slides are projected on to translucent acrylic planes so that the eye is drawn not
only to the image but also to the screen on which it is presented. The exhibit
space is further divide by the full height, multicolored, sheer curtains. The curtains
divide gallery space while simultaneously allowing views through multiple veiled
spaces.

Herzog and de Meuron also provide an exhibition in Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
The exhibition is entitled “Artist’s choice: Herzog and de Meuron Perception
Restrained” which took place in June 21–September 25, 2006. It is the seventh
exhibition in MoMA’s Artist’s Choice series. The show starts in a standard way by
looking dim and empty. The walls are painted black; the space is filled with rows
of benches. It is the black box of video art, except that the medium-size screens
are on the ceiling. The galleries are too crowded. In the exhibition brochure
Herzog and de Meuron state that the show is about "the act of perception itself."
Herzog and de Meuron had seen the problem of people who looking at art without
understanding it in any meaningful way so they try to help their museum visitors
to get more from their visits.
HERZOG AND DE MEURON’S MAJOR WORKS
Herzog and de Meuron have lots of works. The major once are Koechlin House,
Laban Dance Centre, Apartment block in Rue des Suisses, Dominus Winery in
Yountville, Library of Eberswalde, Walker Art Center, M.H. DE, YOUNG
MUSEUM, Tate Modern, Allianz Arena (football stadium) and Beijing Olympic
Stadium. Now we will see each one by one: -

Koechlin House

Koechlin House is found in Riehen, Switzerland that realized in1993-1994. The first
impression of the Kochlin house is daunting. The site slopes sharply downhill to
the street. Unlike with many other of their projects, they designed every thing from
the inside out starting with a courtyard.The innercourtyard was to be both an
interior and an exterior space. Herzog and de Meuron say,” we wanted to bring
the out side space, that is to say the immediate surroundings-the garden with its
tall trees and the view of the city in the distance-right into the house.” The aim
was to turn the interior space “inside out”.
The complete glazings of the exterior surface create open special
appearance in every direction. The house also had a certain weight that
comes from the black smooth surface. We look at the house from the out
side through the window. Because of the sliding movements of the
panes of glass and their effect on the dark surface, the external
appearance of the house is constantly changing. The windows are both
here and there, sometime close to each other, sometime further apart.
This meant the design is really free in the organization of the ground
plan.
Laban Dance Centre

Laban Dance Centre is located in Deptford, southeast London. It opened in February

2003. It is a center for dance, and includes 13 dance studios, a 300-seat theatre,
library and cafe. The building got its name from Rudolf Laban, the Hungarian
choreographer. Herzog and de Meuron won the 2003 Stirling Prize by this
building.
Apartment block in Rue des Suisses

This is the first project in Paris by the Herzog and De Meuron.The apartments occupy
a T-shaped site. There are two street frontages, Rue des Suisses and Rue
Jonquoy. The apartment has three blocks. The larger block facing Rue des
Suisses has several apartments per floor that face either the street or garden
while the narrow block on Rue Jonquoy has only one flat per floor with frontage
on both the street and the garden. In addition to the two blocks there is a long
narrow block designed as a freestanding element in a long narrow courtyard and
is protected with curving rolling wooden blinds. The three blocks contain about 60
flats with different size and types. Basement parking is located beneath the block
on Rue des Suisses and extends into the courtyard beneath the interior building.

Rue Jonquoy (north) façade Rue des Suisses (northeast) facade

The ground floor apartments are organized with the living spaces and bedrooms facing along the
public walkway through the garden and a narrow one story high zone that contains the baths
and kitchens that attaches to the backside of the long block forming small interior courtyards.
The garden block sets up slightly from the ground on an articulated base suggesting a porch
or veranda along the walkway through the garden area. There is an obvious loss of privacy
along the ground floor apartments; the slightly raised setback condition gives some
separation from the garden walkway.
View of garden façade of Rue des Suisses Rue Jonquoy (north) façade detail

Metal shutters covering windows is used on both street and garden facades. The full-height,
hinged shutters are made of perforated, corrugated aluminum panels that are supported by
steel rods connecting between floor slabs. These panels are 412 mm in width and 28 mm
thick and secured to the vertical support rods with stainless steel hinges. The panels are
finished in a durable dark gray, polyester powder coating. A narrow balcony and steel
balustrade separate the plane of shutters from the floor to ceiling glass wall of the apartment
interiors.
Rue des Suisses is a good example of recent projects in Paris that focus on
rebuilding the typical perimeter blocks in different areas of the city while
upgrading the quality of the housing stock.

Site Plan Ground Plan

2nd Floor Plan Garden apartment detail section

Napanook Vineyard in Yountville
Napanook Vineyard is located in Napa Valley in Yountville, California. The winery’s
owner the Mouex family commissioned Herzog and de Meuron in 1995. In May
this year Dominus Winery (Napanook Vineyard) began to produce wine. The
building is a simple two-storey box 140m long by 25m wide with its long axis
running north south. While the building shape is conventional, the cladding of
Dominus is both handsome and functional.

The cladding of Dominus

The building has different rooms. At the north end there are the cask cellar and store
at the ground level with administrative office above. All other areas are double
height, with the tank room in the central band, and the bottling facility. And also in
the south end there is warehouse and electrical plant.
 Napanook Vineyard

The cladding of Dominus is the caged stone that used as rain screen and
tempers of both light and heat for the interior environment of the building. Three
grades of stone (basalt stone) were used. The largest and least densely packed,
which is permeable to light and ventilation is used for the walls of covered outdoor
areas and the tank room. The space gets permanently ventilation by the coarse
stone screen combined with a window screen in the back-up wall. By day, filtered
sunlight is allowed into the tank room and by night, the façade glows like the embers
of a dying fire. A closely packed smaller grade of stone that clads the cask cellar and
warehouse is opaque to light and provides a stronger barrier against temperature
changes in these sensitive areas.
 The coarse stone screen with in a window screen

For the transformative process of winemaking, Herzog and de

Meuron have provided the most unexpected of raw materials, which
is functional and beautiful and highly abstract. This building, like the
wine it houses, is a refined blend of science and art. While highly
rational, efficient and intelligent, Dominus Winery is also a sensuous
fusion of nature and the man-made.
Library of Eberswalde
Library of Eberswalde is found in Eberswalde, Germany, which is built in 1999. The
library is extended from the historical building where the administration staff
work and book are stored. To the rear of the front façade there is a glazed
landscape that link the library to the historical building.

Library of Eberswalde

The design of the library carries the idea of a pictorial façade. The building is a
simple cube sheathed in glazing and cast-concrete panels, arranged in horizontal
bands. Each band shows a single image, repeated sixty-six times. The imprint on
the entire façade unifies the surface of glazing and cast-concrete panels. Herzog
and de Meuron minimalism and ornament idea reflected in this building because of
its simple boxy shape and pictorial façade. The building challenges the conventions
of modernism.
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a modern art museum in Minneapolis,
United States. Lumber magnate Thomas B. Walker founded the
museum in the 1890 by displays gallery in his home as the
Walker Art Gallery. The previous building was opened in 1927
and in 1941. After that many reform done on it.
The Walker Art Center selected the Swiss architects Herzog & de
Meuron to design its expansion. In 2002 construction of Walker
Art Center begins.

Walker Art Center ‘s construction

In April 2005 the Walker Art Center opened its expanded facility
where art, ideas, and audiences come together. As I mentioned
previously Herzog & de Meuron presented an exhibition in the
previous Walker Art Center.

Walker Art Center

M.H. DE, YOUNG MUSEUM

The original M.H. de Young museum is designed in Golden Gate Park, San
Francisco in1917. After the previous museum damaged by earthquake the new
museum is built at the same site at the east end of Golden Gate Park. The
Museum reopened in a beautiful and architecturally controversial new building in
October 15-16, 2005.

The privies San Francisco’s M.H. de The new San Francisco’s M.H. de
Young Museum Young Museum
The art museum is two-storey building with a basement and a twisting, 144-foot
tower. On the two floors permanent exhibits take place. The basement used for
special exhibits gallery. With the tower there is observation deck that is free and
open to the public.
The architects have focused on sensations, not forms. They wanted to created
architecture that touches all your senses in an overall experience and this
approach has made the new de Young Art Museum quite memorable.

M.H. de Young Museum’s interior space

Several areas of the museum force you to view the beauty of the gardens and park with
sweeping views of San Francisco. The combination of views create interesting environment. Some
areas are airy and crowned with skylights others are set in semidarkness in rooms with heavy
wooden floors. The design of various rooms is a commentary on the art and how different pieces
relate to each other. The de Young Museum is a stunning and brilliant work of modern architecture
getting a lot of attention. This museum may be San Francisco's cultural crown.
 Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a spectacular setting for displaying the Tate's collection of international
modern art from 1900 to the present day. Tate Modern is also a museum in
Bankside, London built in 2000. Originally the museum was Bankside power
station designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1947. It was closed down in 1981
and stood unused until 1996 when the Tate trustees saw it as a potential site for a
new art gallery to present the Tate collection. After that the station is converted in
to Tate museum.

Bankside power station (before it Tate Modern

converted)
Herzog & de Meuron won an international compition for the new Tate because they
proposed a design that mostly relate to the original building. All of the original
brickwork, windows and chimney have been renovated and retained. The
original turbine hall has become the new entrance to the gallery as well as
providing a vast exhibition space. The most visible intervention (interference) is
a two- storey ‘light beam’ that runs longitudinally along the building. This huge
light beam dismiss the main architectural problem by bring light in to galleries.
And also its horizontality counterbalances the strong vertical mass of the central
chimney.

The vertical central chimney with the horizontal light beam

Public facilities, such as education rooms, shops and information spaces are arranged
around the turbine hall, which acts as a constant reference point for visitors as they
circulate through the new museum. Internally Herzog and de Meuron have
emphasized the industrial character of the building through their use of polished
concrete, untreated wooden floors and plain light paintwork on the walls
contrasting with black girders.

In the long term, the strip on the south side of the hall will be converted to
create additional gallery spaces. Reflecting the changing nature of the art museum,
Herzog and de Meuron said that architecture serves as a stimulus to creativity rather
than a static constraint. And added “we shall return to the museum in greater detail.”
Allianz Arena (football stadium)

The Allianz Arena is a football stadium located in the north-Munich,German. It

opened April 2005. Opening game of the 2006 World Cup tookplace in this
stadium.

The Allianz Arena football stadium

The Allianz Arena has a capacity of holding 70,000 seat, 3 day-care centres,
fanshops and restaurants with a total area of about 6,500 m². It has also biggest car
park, which can accommodate 11,000 cars.
 The interior space of the stadium
This stadium is able to change colours depending on which team is currently
playing. The exterior shell is made of 2,874 0.2mm thick ETFE diamond shaped foil
panels, each of which can be individually lit in different colours (red, blue or white),
allowing a spectacular display of patterns. The stadium is the largest ETFE-covered
structure in the world.

The different colours of foil panels

Beijing Olympic Stadium

Herzog & De Meuron were the winner of an international competition to design the
new National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Its
construction works began in 2003 and be finished before the beginning of the
2008 Beijing Olympic games where it will have a leading role as national
stadium.

Beijing Olympic Stadium

Herzog and de Meuron proposed a seemingly random, lattice-like network
of concrete strips forming the stadium's bowl shape.
The most unique element in Herzog & De Meuron's winning design is the
concrete structure. More ribbons that wrap the building around its
perimeter intersect the concrete ribbons that start at the ground and
curve over to the oculus. This system allows for resistance of forces in
multiple directions. The immense structure of the stadium will hold
80,000 seats.

Beijing Olympic Stadium

CONCLUSION

When we generalize Herzog and de Meuron , they are architects with great
experience on material usage. On most of their works, they come up
with new idea in material usage like Pictorial façade in Library of
Eberswalde, packed stone cladding in Dominus winery, ‘light beam’ in
Tate Modern etc …

Herzog and de Meuron were also followers of minimalist but their recent
works didn’t show this. This indicate their changing attitude in the
expression of forms. For example the M.H. de Young museum indicates
this.