Philip Ursprung (ed.)

Herzog & de Meuron: Natural History

Herzog & de Meuron test the boundaries between architecture and art to a greater extent than other contemporary architects. Their interest in surface and material, opacity and transparency and the function and variability of images makes architecture speak—not just in quotations and typologies, but by continually redefining raw materials. Their buildings seem to exist simply to present those mysterious and beautiful moments when material is transformed into meaning.

Herzog & de Meuron test the boundaries between architecture and art to a greater extent than other contemporary architects. Their interest in surface and material, opacity and transparency and the function and variability of images makes architecture speak—not just in quotations and typologies, but by continually redefining raw materials. Their buildings seem to exist simply to present those mysterious and beautiful moments when material is transformed into meaning.

Author(s): Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog

Edited by Philip Ursprung, Canadian Centre for Architecture CCA, Montréal

With contributions by Phyllis Lambert, Kurt W. Forster, Jeff Wall, Thomas Ruff, Jacques Herzog, Reinhold Hohl, Alfred Richterich, Adolf Max Vogt, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Petros Koumoutsakos, Albert Lutz, Christian Muoeix, Catherine Hürzeler, Rebbecca Schneider, Rémy Zaugg, Georges Didi-Huberman, Robert Kudielka, Peggy Phelan, Ulrike Meyer Stump, Richard Armstrong, Fernando Romero, Carrie Asman, Boris Groys, Gernot Böhme

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16,5 × 24 cm, 6 ½ × 9 ½ in

472 pages, 800 illustrations

paperback

2005, 978-3-03778-049-7, English
CHF 300.00
Out of print

Philip Ursprung

Philip Ursprung (*1963) earned his PhD in art history at Freie Universität Berlin after studying in Geneva, Vienna, and Berlin. Since 2011, he is Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH Zurich and he was Dean of the Department of Architecture at ETH from 2017–2019. As a writer and curator, Ursprung has contributed to numerous publications and exhibitions. In 2017 he was awarded the Prix Meret Oppenheim by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.