074 HERZOG & DE MEURON


archive of Ruth and Peter Herzog – one of the world’s largest groupings of photographs amassed by private individuals. Basel has been a lifelong inspiration to Herzog and de Meuron and their hope for Kabinett is that it might ‘contribute to the cultural substance’ of their native city.


Alongside the Kabinett displays are six large photographic works by acclaimed German photographer Tomas Ruff, who has been photographing Herzog & de Meuron’s buildings since 1990 when he was invited to photograph their newly designed Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland for the fifth Venice Architecture Biennale in 1991. Te architects were keen to see how an artist might respond to their radically minimalist work. As Jacques Herzog stated in 1994: ‘Our approach defined the building and now we want an outsider’s specific and a personal view of it… [Ruff] builds up an architecture of his own that is juxtaposed with ours. Tat interests us.’ Certainly, the clarity and linearity of Herzog & de Meuron’s designs are well-suited to Ruff’s rigorous photographic language, which was influenced by the stark, impersonal objectivity of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whom he studied under at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie. Ruff is one of several artists with whom Herzog & de Meuron have collaborated, including Joseph Beuys, Andreas Gursky, Michael Craig-Martin and Ai Weiwei (with whom they designed the National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games).


Te second room at the Royal Academy is


Above Drawings for the Kinderspital in Zurich, planned for completion in 2024


a film space, which features a moving image installation based on observations of people occupying and exploring a range of Herzog & de Meuron’s innovative buildings. A large central screen shows a new documentary by renowned architectural filmmakers Bêka & Lemoine, whose entire body of work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2016 for its permanent collection. Te film takes viewers on a tour of daily life at the ground-breaking REHAB Basel, a highly specialised clinic supporting the rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord and brain injuries. Because most patients stay at the clinic for long periods of time, it was important that the facility did not look or feel like a hospital and that it allowed for as much autonomy as possible. To that end, the connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces was the primary architectural concern, with a series of courtyards filled with trees and plants serving as orientation and allowing daylight to penetrate the interior spaces. Herzog & de Meuron describe REHAB as ‘a multifunctional, diversified building, almost like a small town


Below London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the UK’s only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance


with streets, plazas, gardens, public facilities, and more secluded residential quarters.’ Te two-storey clinic was first completed in 2002, with a roof extension added in 2019 to provide new facilities, expanding its capacity for helping people adjust to life after illness or severe trauma. Te wood-clad building is, the architects say, ‘a prototype for how spatial and sensory experiences can serve the healing process. Daylight, vegetation, easy orientation, and natural materials reinforce a calming environment for all patients and relatives in the exceptional physical and mental situation they find themselves in.’


Te notion of restorative architecture continues in the exhibition’s final room, which is dedicated to the Kinderspital Zürich, a children’s hospital still under construction on the outskirts of the Swiss city. Located amid a leafy residential district, the three-storey building is a distinctly horizontal structure set opposite the historic Burghölzli Psychiatric Hospital, a 1869 listed building designed by Johann Caspar Wolff and now associated with the University of Zürich. In contrast with its intimidating nineteenth-century neighbour, the new hospital’s unconventional form is characterised from inside out by a delicacy of material detail, creating a warm and welcoming environment. As with REHAB, nature penetrates deep into the light and airy building, which is arranged around numerous internal courtyards of varying shapes and sizes. Each floor follows an urban-style grid with spaces resembling streets, intersections and squares, while outside, the facade is a weave of various materials: concrete, timber, glass, textiles and plants. Te third floor patient accommodation is set back from the main concrete structure, with each room appearing more like a holiday chalet than a hospital bedroom – a reflection of the architects’ desire to acknowledge the individuality of each patient.


What is clear from surveying 45 years of Herzog & de Meuron’s work is that the architects refuse to be pinned down. Teirs is not an architecture driven by ideology or ‘isms’; they purposefully eschew a house style in favour of constant reinvention and each project springs from curiosity, creativity and a respect for the local conditions. ‘We prefer our approach,’ says Herzog, ‘because it helps to avoid the trap of repeating yourself.’ Whether realised in wood, steel, brick, concrete, or even mud, their designs all share the same uncompromising attitude: a commitment to freedom and openness within the confines of architectural possibility. Tis ability to constantly reimagine architecture has been key to their longevity. Te Royal Academy have, quite rightly, avoided calling this exhibition a retrospective; Herzog & de Meuron’s project is very much a work in progress. – Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron


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LEFT: KATALIN DEÉR ABOVE: HERZOG & DE MEURON


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