Herzog & de Meuron is an international architectural practice based in Basel, Switzerland. Since its founding in 1978, they have accumulated a wide range of competencies and experience that help them to customise solutions for each project. More than 500 highly committed people from 50 countries are eager to explore how architecture can meet the needs of our rapidly and radically changing world.

“We have no preconceived ideas, but an obligation to address the problems we all face. In over 600 projects in 40 countries, we go beyond the specific brief, beyond the site and its physical appearance, beyond conventions, with an open and unbiased approach. We work beyond the usual disciplines, seeking collaborations and solutions with like-minded, equally committed people, with those who recognise the need to look at the world with a fresh and critical eye”.

With this mindset, they have worked on a diversity of tasks, from small, seemingly insignificant buildings to larger building complexes, urban master plans and territorial studies, in the social, cultural and business worlds. “We have learned how architecture and urbanism shape the identity of a place. Regardless of the nature or size of a project, we seek to foster the public life it could and should generate. All architecture is public, and all architecture is political, because it is relevant to life in a community”.

Jacques Herzog

Jacques Herzog studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli from 1970 to 1975. Together with Pierre de Meuron, he founded Herzog & de Meuron in Basel in 1978. In 1983, Jacques Herzog was a visiting professor at the School of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University (USA). Both founding partners were visiting professors at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, USA, in 1989 and from 1994 to 2014, and have been professors at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) – Department of Architecture, Networked City and Landscape, from 1999 to 2018. They were co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, a research programme focusing on transformation processes in the urban realm. In 2016, both were awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Art; in 2018, by the Technical University of Munich; and in 2000 they received an honorary doctorate in political science from the University of Basel.

Pierre de Meuron

Pierre de Meuron studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli from 1970 to 1975. Together with Jacques Herzog, he founded Herzog & de Meuron in Basel in 1978. Both have been visiting professors at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, USA, in 1989 and from 1994 to 2014, and have been professors at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) – Department of Architecture, Networked City and Landscape, from 1999 to 2018. They were co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, a research programme focusing on transformation processes in the urban realm. In 2016, both were awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Art; in 2018, by the Technical University of Munich; and in 2000 they received an honorary doctorate in political science from the University of Basel.