Sublime Design of Herzog & de Meuron
>
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced Herzog & de Meuron as winners of the 2015 RIBA Jencks Award. The award is given to an individual (or practice) that has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture. On this year’s winners, RIBA President Stephen Hodder said: “The contribution to our profession from Jacques and Pierre is constantly profound. The innovative ways in which they explore and reinterpret is evident in their numerous projects, from the 2003 Stirling Prize winner Laban Centre in London to the multi-layered intersection of architecture, archaeology and art that was the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion.”
Commenting on Herzog & de Meuron receiving the award, Charles Jencks said: “Herzog & de Meuron have the widest approach to architecture varying their style for each job. In this sense they epitomise the global search for an architecture of pluralism, one flexible enough for very different cultures. While a recognisable attitude runs through the work, and a commitment to intelligent design, it is the creative flexibility which stands out above other practices today.
The high quality of the work is as notable as the wit; the amount of production as much as its personality. Their conceptual innovations combined with high turnover are highly risky, yet they have continued to produce architecture of the highest standard: rigorous and iconic, and plain or ornamented depending on the task at hand. Herzog & de Meuron deserve a lifetime award as a local Basel office and a global practice. They seem to have finally squared the circle of large-scale architectural production.”
Herzog & de Meuron have already received The Pritzker Architecture Prize (2001), an RIBA Royal Gold Medal (2007), a Praemium Imperiale (2007), Lubetkin Prize winner National Stadium in Beijing (2009) and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) (2014).
RIBA
