Danish firm BIG unveils their newest design – a spiraling structure of steel and glass that juts down into the earth at La Vallée de Joux, Switzerland, for luxury watchmaker company Audemars Piguet.
BIG, along with HG Merz, Luchinger & Meyer and Muller Illien were commissioned by the company to design their newest flagship, which will also be an expansion of the company’s headquarters.
The 25,800-sf pavilion will house the company’s museum, called Maison des Fondateurs. According to Jasmine Audemars, president of Audemars Piguet’s Board of Directors, the museum will be “a place for people to enjoy and share the passion of watchmaking.”
The spiral shape is a storytelling device for the company’s history; as visitors walk down, they are guided through a linear sequence of spaces and events through lounges, galleries and workshops, until they are eventually led to the heritage building in a workshop where the company originated.
In addition to the pavilion, the building will include an underground guest house with windows camouflaged under grassy hills, providing views over the Vallée de Joux.
Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG, comments on the design: “Watchmaking like architecture is the art and science of invigorating inanimate matter with intelligence and performance. It is the art of imbuing metals and minerals with energy, movement, intelligence and measure – to bring it to life in the form of telling time. Unlike most machines and most buildings today that have a disconnect between the body and the mind, the hardware and the software, for the Maison des Fondateurs we have attempted to completely integrate the geometry and the performance, the form and the function, the space and the structure, the interior and the exterior in a symbiotic hole”.
“La Maison des Fondateurs not only symbolises the deep connection between the brand and its origins but also its spirit of independence and avant-garde,” Audemars adds.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
PBK, DLR Group among nation's largest K-12 school design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 K-12 School Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Turner Building Cost Index dips nearly 4% in second quarter 2009
Turner Construction Company announced that the second quarter 2009 Turner Building Cost Index, which measures nonresidential building construction costs in the U.S., has decreased 3.35% from the first quarter 2009 and is 8.92% lower than its peak in the second quarter of 2008. The Turner Building Cost Index number for second quarter 2009 is 837.
| Aug 11, 2010
AGC unveils comprehensive plan to revive the construction industry
The Associated General Contractors of America unveiled a new plan today designed to revive the nation’s construction industry. The plan, “Build Now for the Future: A Blueprint for Economic Growth,” is designed to reverse predictions that construction activity will continue to shrink through 2010, crippling broader economic growth.
| Aug 11, 2010
New AIA report on embassies: integrate security and design excellence
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released a new report to help the State Department design and build 21st Century embassies.
| Aug 11, 2010
Section Eight Design wins 2009 Open Architecture Challenge for classroom design
Victor, Idaho-based Section Eight Design beat out seven other finalists to win the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom, spearheaded by the Open Architecture Network. Section Eight partnered with Teton Valley Community School (TVCS) in Victor to design the classroom of the future. Currently based out of a remodeled house, students at Teton Valley Community School are now one step closer to getting a real classroom.
