Herzog and de Meuron

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are two of the most revered names in architecture.  Their eye-catching, mind-bending, mouth-watering structures stand all around the world: Mexico, France, England, Japan, Spain, and the United States, as well as their native Switzerland. They have designed large-scale international commissions such as the Tate Modern Museum and Beijing’s National Stadium (the much-vaunted "Bird's Nest") for the 2008 Olympic games, as well as futuristic apartment buildings, pop-minimalist libraries, hotels, schools, and parking lots. Herzog and de Meuron, who first met at the age of 6, have worked on hundreds of projects and won numerous awards, including architecture's highest honor (close to the stature of a Nobel), the Pritzker Prize. This overwhelming success is difficult to explain, though it certainly has to do with their imaginative solutions to architectural problems, the explorations of exterior treatments, the use of “classic” materials in flawless modern facades, the redefinition of traditions, the search for simplicity and the bravery of well thought-out complex and technological designs. Or it could simply be because every building they design is unlike the last. Architecture defines generations and their names, thanks to their fine achievements, will probably end up, if they are not already, written on stone.