Design Technologies – Herzog & de Meuron

While hand drawings, physical models and mock-ups play an important role in our design process, all projects are underpinned by our multidisciplinary Design Technologies team. We choose the best tools for each specific task, which allows our design process to simultaneously occupy both the analogue and the digital.

Given our broad project portfolio and the complex planning involved in every project, digital and networked models allow us to take an interdisciplinary approach. Comprehensive simulations and analyses based on these models go beyond the visualisation of geometry or design – they provide us with quantitative frameworks; they evaluate a building’s functionality and outline the parameters of sustainability; they allow us to apply animations along with virtual and augmented reality to the overall design process. In the later phases before and during construction, these models are used for direct digital interaction with contractors, fabricators, and builders on-site.

Our Design Technologies specialists are an integral part of our project teams, implementing the appropriate methodology from the start and providing support along the way. We are actively involved in the future of digital tools, working closely with leading universities on research projects, while exploring new possibilities in practice with software developers and other architectural offices.