Since the end of the 20th century, the works of renowned architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron (HdM) have drawn attention for their seemingly simplistic designs that are striving to achieve a more engaging experience with the human body. To describe their work as “minimalistic” would do an injustice to their deeper intentions. The broad strokes painted by this kind of term do an injustice to a firm that has used humble formal strategies as a way of inviting us to experience space more deeply. When looking across HdM’s works and cultural references, we can see that this type of architecture walks the line between its references to permanence and impermanence. Defining these two terms within HdM’s catalogue requires an understanding of their fascination with contemporary culture. Early on their careers, HdM have cited their relationships with creatives like visual artists and fashion houses as “practices that shape our sensibilities, they are the expressions of our times.”[1] By following their references to artists in different mediums, we can begin to understand how HdM is able to create architecture that emulates many of the same themes as artforms like the visual arts or fashion. These two artforms appear commonly throughout HdM’s interviews, often as a means of expressing how their architecture creates complexity and interest in similar ways. However, the cultural ask of architecture differs in its expressions of what it means to be permanent or impermanent. For HdM, architectural works must “capture the eternal aspects of a moment,” referencing human experiences that are permanent and can be felt across different cultural eras. For other artistic mediums, namely fashion, the definitions of a particular moment are more fleeting because “you can give it away if you don’t like it anymore or when you think you need to change your public face.”[2] For a firm that has completed acclaimed architectural works for major fashion houses, this seemingly black-and-white division between two artistic mediums presents a major point of tension and, demonstrably, contradiction. A building, for HdM, cannot be treated like a flashy coat, for it must transcend the tastes of the current era and is not able to scratch our immediate artistic itches as well as a coat may. The breadth of cultural interests that HdM has allows them to imbue their buildings with architectural elements that engage with us on a human level, specifically through our five senses. The senses transcend time, as they are the primary way in which human beings interact with their physical surroundings. Earlier in their work, the byproduct of this interest in the senses was the production of simple formal strategies that left smaller architectural moments open to stimulate our senses. In response to critics that may characterize this type of work as “boring”, Jacques Herzog would explain that “with such a way of thinking you cannot have access to our architecture, which avoids entertainment and spectacular gestures.”[3] It is these spectacular gestures that force architecture to behave like fashion would, using design elements whose tastes are specific to a moment and may become dated.
Examining HdM’s influences from the visual arts helps explain the origins of their avoiding of entertainment. Joseph Beuys was one such figure whose work with felt illustrated some core themes of HdM’s architecture. His Infiltration for Piano (Figure 1) in 1966 saw a grand piano wrapped completely in felt with a similar sized draping of felt hanging directly next to it. Here, the properties of felt as a material, one that takes the form of that which it is covering, help the viewer appreciate the piano for what it is. Even when not being played, a piano has the potential for sound, allowing us (in Beuys’s eyes) to become complacent of its sound potential because it is always there. When the piano is wrapped in a thick felt, any possibility of the production of sound is immediately limited and we are seemingly left yearning for the sound to be produced again. The central theme that HdM appears to extract from this type of commentary is that in our buildings we are growing attached to the idea of the spectacular, so much so that we do not even register them as special places anymore. To reverse this cultural programming, we must slow down and appreciate formal qualities beyond complexity for complexity’s sake. This is done through the usage of quieted forms and careful usage of materials that can engage us in multiple senses.
One of HdM’s earliest projects would display this line of thinking, with a simple geometric form that housed a creative and engaging usage of materials. The Ricola-Europe SA warehouse in 1992 is located in the outskirts of a French industrial town. The prism-like geometries that define the building result from the need for the warehouse to be an open plan. To situate the warehouse within its wooded context, a polycarbonate rainscreen is imprinted with an image of an eleven-leaf palm, a direct reference to the flora in the building’s immediate surroundings (Figure 2). External lighting conditions, as given by cloud-cover, precipitation, and time of day, augment the effect of this rainscreen by making the floral pattern seemingly invisible at times. Furthermore, the building does not make use of a drainage system, letting stormwater flow directly down the concrete to change its appearance both momentarily and over time in its weathering (Figure 3).[4] While immediate conditions like rain/snow will increase the reflectivity of the concrete to make it seem almost transparent, the aggregate effect of these conditions over time will change the appearance of the concrete wall due to phenomena like rusting. These elements engage our eyes, ears, noses, and physical touch in how they reference our surroundings and change over time. In this way, these effects are permanent and solidify the warehouse as such. Eternal phenomena like trees and rain will exist long after human beings – and these are the elements that bring the building to life, without which the building could not exist as more than an anonymous warehouse. The gestures made to engage with these eternal phenomena are not done so for their own sake, but rather due their desire for “architecture without any distinguishable figuration [and] materials that not only tickle the retina of the astonished art critic, but that are really efficient and appeal to all of our senses.”[5] While the building itself is void of formal complexities, the engagement of the building with its surroundings and its occupants allows it to become a permanent and engaging object in its natural and social environment. The tactics of permanence in the Ricola warehouse form the foundation that would allow HdM to meaningfully collaborate with fashion houses despite the contrast in programmatic asks. The versatility of these tactics would create a union that embraces the tension between the two fields and engages with users to heighten their experiences with both.
At first, the fascination with fashion appears confusing given the tension defined by HdM. In representing human phenomena, visual artists like Beuys can create pure commentary whereas architecture must facilitate our human needs. Fashion occupies a sort of middle ground where, although clothing is essential for daily life, it can also provide commentary on us and the world around us. For HdM, this is not completely different from architecture as they believe fashion to be “a link between the public and the private just like a house.”[6] As such, it makes sense that HdM would begin an ongoing collaboration with high-fashion house Prada in the early 2000s. Out of the four concurrent Prada projects that were undertaken by HdM during this time, the two most notable were the Prada Aoyama store in Tokyo and the Prada USA Headquarters in New York City. The former is situated in a low-rise neighborhood, its iconic silhouette a result of local land regulations. Adding to this effect is a creative use of glass and steel in the façade’s rhomboid grid (Figure 4). This tectonic strategy expresses both the structural system that braces against lateral loads and defines internal divisions between the open display spaces and private fitting rooms. Furthermore, the interior spaces exhibit a careful curation of the clashes between two types of materials: the “hyper-artificial” and the “hyper-natural”. Silicon and fiberglass define the former while leather and wood define the latter. The dichotomy created by these materials transcend conventional notions of the contemporary and the traditional, placing both on an equal ground within the structure.[7] Between the flashy façade strategy and the opulent interior finishes, the Prada Aoyama store is a contradiction to the avoiding of “entertainment and spectacular gestures” previously stated by HdM. The building feels like architecture that is playing the role of fashion: a practical store for the display/sale of merchandise but also an aesthetic icon that projects Prada’s view of themselves in the moment. Since HdM feels that our public face can change at any time, this approach to architecture is impermanent, as the message presented by the facade and interior strategies can become dated if/when tastes change.
Perhaps the contradiction of the Tokyo store arose solely from the demands of the client and was out of the hands of the designers. In Prada USA’s headquarters, however, HdM would take a different approach: one that seems to be more guided by their overall philosophy. Situated in a former piano factory, the space for the headquarters is defined by a total stripping of existing finishes, partitions, and other architectural elements. What this leaves behind is an honest expression of the concrete primary structure of the building (Figure 5). Large former industrial spaces are defined by concrete mushroom columns and high ceilings. These spaces are fitted with glass walls to create workspaces, galleries, and studios for the fashion house. The effect of these smaller interventions is the exposure of the existing building and a trimming down to only that which is necessary. For HdM, the headquarters are “a kind of striptease of the former piano factory.”[8] The goal of this type of “intervention” forms the more honest commentary on architecture that HdM is trying to make. In place of ornament for the sake of ornament, HdM embraces a “mundane” aspect of architecture, structure, as a type of ornament. In architecture, “when ornament and structure become a single thing, strangely enough is a new feeling of freedom.”[9] Perhaps this “freedom” is what separates architecture from fashion, as it is not tied to constantly changing trends and must create spaces that we can inhabit forever. When done correctly, in the eyes of HdM, structure as ornament slows us down to appreciate the architecture for what it literally is. In the case of the piano factory, the structure is literally inseparable from the building. Though the façade of the Tokyo store also serves a significant structural purpose, the motivations behind the two buildings differ. The Tokyo store’s facade was seemingly created to become an icon, a sculpture in its surroundings for everyone to see. The headquarters building is far humbler. Typically, the average Prada customer would never see the interior of the company’s headquarters. As such, the message that HdM sends with the concrete columns in the headquarters is intended for Prada itself: a building that serves its needs and puts people on notice does not have to be flashy or sculptural. Rather, attention to the vast existing spaces because of the mushroom columns is experiential by itself. Since the structural concrete columns are required to keep the building up, their place as ornament emphasizes their permanence as well as the importance of permanence within the discipline of architecture. It seems that Prada understood the message that was being sent by HdM, and it would soon venture to invite the public to do the same.
In the spring of 2019, Prada launched a campaign titled "Resort”, for which it would tap Herzog & de Meuron for the design of its runway. The runway would be located within the Prada USA Headquarters in New York. The headquarters demonstrates an appreciation for the fundamentals, for the primary structural elements and their singular materiality. All of this is done in a way that allows the space to be imbued with the significance of the users. The location of Prada’s show within this type of headquarters would logically follow this line of thinking. Within fashion, 2019 began the domination of the industry by the concept of “fast fashion”. Brands following this trend produced clothing that was meant to be purchased and discarded in quick succession. This phenomenon occupied the extreme end of what HdM observed in the relatively quick timeline that fashion followed as compared to architecture. As a response to this trend, Prada sought to hit the brakes on the pace at which fashion trends shift. The pieces of the 2019 show would highlight a return to craftsmanship, with heavy usage of traditional textures like cotton, leather, and suede. Furthermore, many of the pieces featured floral motifs and references to Prada’s older works (Figure 6). As such, the name of the show, Resort, was a double entendre of sorts. First, Prada’s heavy reference to different flora seemed to represent those that could be seen on a tropical resort. Simultaneously, Prada was resorting to their roots as a fashion house: one grounded in craftsmanship, quality, and attention to detail. These themes are already echoed in the original design for the headquarters building: honesty of materiality, lack of embellishment, and a focus on longevity by way of the quality of the space. In the experience of the runway design, HdM would seek to further the existing qualities of the space, pushing them to create a more personal relationship with the audience and city at large. The concrete columns would still be on full display – with no augments to their character. Between the columns, in a way that would define the path of the runway, HdM placed glass panels that were sized to the same dimensions as the building’s windows. Printed on these panels were wireframe perspectives of the surrounding city scape. These panels brought the outside environment in, ensuring that no matter where one looked, one would see a representation of the city. Furthermore, HdM’s lighting strategy for the evening show would use a series of red lights to augment the effect of the sunset that was simultaneously taking place outside (Figure 7). The usage of the panels and lighting in these ways forms a productive contradiction with the building at large. The base condition of the building is muted, with the bare concrete columns forming the visual interest. The honesty expressed in this space forms the ideal backdrop for the flashy displays of the runway: permanence housing impermanence.
The runway design for the Prada Resort 2019 show exemplifies the lessons learned by HdM from different aspects of our contemporary culture, namely fashion and the visual arts. The work done by HdM for Prada throughout their career captures the essential aspects of their project and the push/pull relationship between cultural permanence and impermanence. They have conveyed the permanent goals of architecture through the honesty of material and tectonics and the tandem expression of ornament and structure. These elements come together in quiet formal strategies that allow us to experience the true beauty and cultural permanence of space through all our five human senses. Simultaneously, HdM has created space within their project for contradiction. Works like their Prada Aoyama store in Tokyo utilize their ornament/structure philosophy to strive for an icon, a building whose aesthetics may become dated in time. On the other hand, the Prada Headquarters in New York uses the same tactic of revealing structure as the point of interest in the space. Here, we are left to appreciate an architectural element that we would normally take for granted: the concrete column. When we see the column, we are reminded of its place within the building as a giver of form, space, program, and structure. The properties of the columns and the space created between them are what enable an event like the Prada Resort 2019 show to come to life. They can install illustrative panels and dynamic lighting to instill the space with the moment’s aesthetic requirements – architecture as fashion. The general sensibility of the Prada headquarters echoes earlier works such as the Ricola-Europe warehouse in France that articulated engaging sensory experiences through concrete and clever tectonic strategies. These expressions of culture and human experience transcend a moment, creating experiences that can be felt by humanity for as long as they are around. They force us to slow down and consider what we see, breaking us free from the overly spectacular gestures that can date architecture and render it unsightly. Without an understanding of Herzog & de Meuron’s project, it would be impossible to acknowledge the beauty of contradiction that exists in the Prada USA Headquarters/Resort 2019 show. This contradiction can then help us understand how similar moments play out across the entirety of Herzog & de Meuron’s design portfolio.
Footnotes:
[1] Jeffrey Kipnis, “A Conversation with Jacques Herzog (HdeM),” El Croquis 84 (1993-1997): 6.
[2] Jeffrey Kipnis, “A Conversation with Jacques Herzog (HdeM),”: 7.
[3] Jeffrey Kipnis, “A Conversation with Jacques Herzog (HdeM),”: 10.
[4] “Ricola-Europe SA, Production and Storage Building, Mulhouse-Brunstatt,” Herzog & de Meuron, Arquitectura Viva, https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/nave-y-almacen-para-ricola-europe-sa-mulhouse-brunstatt.
[5] Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, “2001 Pritzker Acceptance Speech,” El Croquis 109/110 (1998-2002): 11.
[6] Jeffrey Kipnis, “A Conversation with Jacques Herzog (HdeM),”: 7.
[7] “178 Prada Aoyama,” Projects, Herzog & de Meuron, https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/projects/178-prada-aoyama/.
[8] “185 Prada New York Headquarters,” Projects, Herzog & de Meuron, https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/projects/185-prada-new-york-headquarters-prada-usa/.
[9] Jean-Francois Chevrer, “The Monumental and the Intimate,” El Croquis 129/130 (2002-2006): 18.
References:
Arquitectura Viva. “Ricola-Europe SA, Production and Storage Building, Mulhouse-Brunstatt,” Herzog & de Meuron, https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/nave-y-almacen-para-ricola-europe-sa-mulhouse-brunstatt.
Chevrer, Jean-Francois. “The Monumental and the Intimate,” El Croquis 129/130 (2002-2006): 5-23.
Herzog & de Meuron. “178 Prada Aoyama,” Projects, https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/projects/178-prada-aoyama/.
Herzog & de Meuron. “185 Prada New York Headquarters,” Projects, https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/projects/185-prada-new-york-headquarters-prada-usa/.
Herzog, Jacques and de Meuron, Pierre. “2001 Pritzker Acceptance Speech,” El Croquis 109/110 (1998-2002): 5-11.
Kipnis, Jeffrey. “A Conversation with Jacques Herzog (HdeM),” El Croquis 84 (1993-1997): 6-27.