Herzog & de Meuron

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Allianz Arena in Munich.

The Forum Building in Barcelona.

Herzog & de Meuron is a Basel-based Swiss architecture firm, founded in 1978 by Jacques Herzog (born 19 April 1950 in Basel) and Pierre de Meuron (born 8 May 1950 in Basel), its two main partners. The two architects' careers have run closely in parallel, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland. Their most famous work is perhaps the conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station to the Tate Museum of Modern Art.

In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron became recipients the Pritzker Prize, the Nobel of the architectural world. J. Carter Brown, the jury chairman commented, "One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity." This refers to their innovative use of exterior materials and treatments, such as silkscreened glass. Architecture critic and Pritzker juror Ada Louise Huxtable summarized their approach concisely: "They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques."[1] In 2006, the New York Times Magazine called them "one of the most admired architecture firms in the world."

HdeM's early works were reductivist pieces of modernity that registered on the same level as the minimalist art of Donald Judd. However, their recent work at Prada Tokyo, the Barcelona Forum Building and the Beijing National Stadium (for the Olympic Games) suggest a changing attitude.

Though their commitment to the primacy of materiality shows through all their projects, the manipulation of form has gone from boxy modernism to volumetric prisms of equal if not greater presence. The architects often cite Joseph Beuys as an enduring artistic inspiration and collaborate with different artists on each architectural project. Their success can be attributed to their skills in revealing unfamiliar or unknown relationships through familiar materials.