‘Twentyfive x Herzog & de Meuron’ and ‘Fünfundzwanzig x Herzog & de Meuron’ Available to Order

BASEL, SWITZERLAND — Twentyfive x Herzog & de Meuron is the result of an almost fifty-year long relationship between its two editors, art historian and architectural critic Stanislaus von Moos and architect and ETH professor emeritus Arthur Rüegg, and our two founding partners, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, both former professors at the ETH themselves. Out of more than 600 projects in nearly 40 countries, the twenty-five case studies taken together aim to cover the essential aspects of the complete body of work, as the two editors put it in their preface: ‘Our intention was, starting from a selection of works, to identify the office’s most significant design strategies and simultaneously, to do justice to its artistic ambitions, or what we understood them to be, with a targeted selection from the extensive image material.’

The book began as a conversation between Stanislaus, Arthur, Jacques and Pierre more than ten years ago. What kind of a book could be made about H&dM that hasn’t been done before, through the specific and valuable lens of two critical thinkers who have followed the office from the start? Their research began – with a radically personal approach – following H&dM’s architecture over time, using photography as an independent medium. Essays by the two editors shed light on their topics and perspectives, situating them within an historical and architectural context.

The twenty-five projects are presented in chronological order, allowing the reader to follow the timeline of the practice over a few decades. Each case study is introduced with a new text by the two editors and accompanied by bibliographic references and technical drawings. Visual essays including photographs by Balthasar Burkhard, Hannah Villiger, Margherita Spiluttini, Iwan Baan, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky, Wolfgang Tillmans and others, all taken from the existing corpus, constitute the backbone of the book.

Additionally, for the first time in print, the book includes curated selections taken from the personal collections of the two founders – photographic works by Pierre de Meuron and a sampling from Jacques Herzog’s postcard collection: visual archives that have either inspired their work or emerged as a result of it.

Gerhard Steidl joined the book project in early 2022. Despite many publications over the past forty-six years, Twentyfive x Herzog & de Meuron, released this week by Steidl Verlag, marks our first collaboration with this exceptional publisher.

Both editions now available at steidl.de