5. "Herzog & de Meuron 001-500"
Authors: Dino Simonett, Martina Baer
Publisher: Simonett & Baer
Basel 2019
Ideal for slightly more impatient followers of the work of the Herzog & de Meuron studio - for example, those who do not want to wait many years for subsequent volumes of official monographs - is the book "Herzog & de Meuron 001-500" by Simonett & Baer Publishing.
This is a compilation of five hundred individually numbered and chronologically ordered H&deM projects created from the beginning of the studio's existence, up to the latest work, launched in 2018-2019. Individual illustrations show the essence of each concept and realization, proving the extraordinary versatility of the Swiss architects. The book can be considered a synthetic documentation of the fascinating evolution of H&deM's work, which is often a reaction to successive, rapidly changing trends and tendencies in world architecture. Variability and diversity have become, in a sense, the hallmarks of Herzog and de Meuron's activities, so it is difficult to classify their works to a specific architectural style, as one can find among them examples of postmodernism, brutalism, minimalism, but also deconstructivism or regionalism in the broadest sense. The Swiss, following the idea of gesamtkunstwerk, explore certain themes, combine and mix them, exploit their potential to the fullest, then look for more - new ones.
This book is Herzog & de Meuron's compressed portfolio, which already includes more than five hundred projects of varying scales, but it is also a testament to the continuous growth of the studio, which in forty years has transformed itself from a modest duo from Basel into a global brand and a thriving company with more than four hundred employees today.
Published by Simonett & Baer, the publication is available in two versions - softcover and hardcover - but, interestingly, each copy is different. The linen wrappers were created by hand-striping different colors, making each book unique, and a limited edition of the first 200 copies was signed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.
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