Musee Atelier Audemars Piguet

PHOTOGRAPHY IWAN BAAN

In 2014, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) won the architectural competition Audemars Piguet hosted to expand its historical premises. The firm designed a contemporary spiral-shaped glass pavilion to complement the company’s oldest building, where Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet set up their workshop, technically a start-up of the old times, in 1875. This architectural combination symbolises the blend of tradition and forward thinking at the heart of Audemars Piguet’s craftsmanship, while honouring its deep-rooted origins in the Vallée de Joux. BIG’s spiral design offers a pristine setting for the masterpieces of technicity and design that have taken shape, year after year, in this remote valley of the Swiss Jura Mountains.

The Musée Atelier’s spiralshaped pavilion, realised by the Swiss architecture office CCHE, seamlessly rises on walls of structural curved glass. A feat of engineering and design, it is the first construction of its kind to be built at such altitude. The curved glazing entirely supports the steel roof, while a brass mesh runs along the external surface to regulate light and temperature. The green roof further helps regulate temperature, while absorbing water.

The spiral has been designed to perfectly integrate the surrounding landscape. The floors follow different slants to adapt to the natural gradient of the land and provide the basis of the museum’s inner layout, stretched into a linear continuous spatial experience. Inside, the curved glass walls converge clockwise towards the spiral’s centre, before moving in the opposite direction: visitors travel through the building as they would through the spring of a timepiece.

This new contemporary building reflects the Manufacture’s commitment to architectural innovation regarding manufacturing and cultural projects alike. It fulfils the requirements of the Swiss Minergie certification in terms of energy efficiency and high-quality construction. The company is also building the new Hôtel des Horlogers in its hometown of Le Brassus, which will open in the summer of 2021 – a sustainable, contemporary space at the crossroads of modernity and tradition, once again designed by BIG with CCHE as local partner.