Swiss Watchmaker Audemars Piguet Picks BIG Design for New Museum

Covered with snow, lights from the Swiss Watchmaker Audemars Piguet Museum shines through the immaculate snow. Image courtesy of BIG

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

Swiss Watchmaker Audemars Piguet Picks Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to expand its historic headquarters which includes a spiralling new museum

Image- Audemars Piguet Museum. — An aerial view of the Audemars Piguet Museum in Le Brassus Switzerland. Image courtesy of BIG

Image- Light emanates from the Museum. — Artist rendition of the Audemars Piguet Museum designed by big. Image courtesy of BIG

SWITZERLAND—Audemars Piguet, the Swiss luxury watchmaker has chosen Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to expand its historic headquarters. Jasmine Audemars, President of Audemars Piguet’s Board of Directors, made the announcement. According to him, the new Maison des Fondateurs project, a new flagship for Audemars Piguet will be a “place for people to enjoy and share the passion of watchmaking.”

According to Audemars, La Maison des Fondateurs symbolizes the deep connection between the brand and its origins. Additionally, he explained that the museum shows the company’s spirit of independence and avant-garde

The 2.400m2/25,800 ft pavilion, according to BIG, “will be a striking landmark to precision seamlessly integrated into the local landscape.” Called Maison des Fondateurs, the new museum will be embedded in the landscape. It will unite the buildings with the undulating fields of the valley, including the surrounding historical workshops in Le Brassus in the heart of La Vallée de Joux, Maison des Fondateurs.

BIG’s design is a combination of a spiral-shaped pavilion, a design that serves as a storyline for visitors. The design guides visitors through a linear sequence of spaces and events. It goes from the entrance to lounges, galleries, and workshops, to the attic of the heritage building in the workshop where it all began.

Watchmaking and Architecture

Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG notes that: “Watchmaking like architecture is the art and science of invigorating inanimate matter with intelligence and performance. It is the art of imbuing metals and minerals with energy, movement, intelligence, and measure – to bring it to life in the form of telling time.”

Ingels emphasized connectivity and integration as key elements in Watchmaking and architecture:

Unlike most machines and most buildings today that have a disconnect between the body and the mind, the hardware and the software, for the Maison des Fondateurs we have attempted to completely integrate the geometry and the performance, the form, and the function, space and the structure, the interior and the exterior in a symbiotic hole.

Blending old and new, the museum connects historical workshops and galleries by coiling up the sequence of spaces in a double spiral. The ambiance of the building is accentuated by an undulating roof and ceiling that allows daylight and views to the exhibits. Bjarke Ingels notes:

I have always admired Swiss architecture for its flawless craftsmanship. Swiss buildings sometimes make you suspect that they have been built by watchmakers. That we are now working directly for the family of the original founders Audemars and Piguet is going to be an amazing exploration in mastery and innovation”, says Bjarke Ingels.