Jacques Herzog

Jacques Herzog studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli from 1970 to 1975. Together with Pierre de Meuron, he established Herzog & de Meuron in Basel in 1978. They have both been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), USA, in 1989 and from 1994 to 2014, and have been professors at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) – Department of Architecture, Network City and Landscape, from 1999 until 2018. They co-founded the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, a research program with a focus on the processes of transformation in the urban domain. In 2016, both were given Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art; in 2018, from the Technical University of Munich; and in 2000 they were awarded Honorary Doctor of Political Science degrees from the University of Basel.

In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, stating during the acceptance speech their aim to ‘reject classifications in architecture and to keep ourselves open to approach architecture in as many ways as we can.’ In 2007, they were awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, both in recognition of their work and its international influence. In 2015, they were given the RIBA Jencks Award. In addition, Herzog & de Meuron has received numerous awards for specific architectural projects.

In 2015 they co-founded the non-profit foundation Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel, comprising three sub-Kabinetts — architecture, art and photography — with the aim to keep these holdings intact as a cultural asset and to work with them in their specificity.