Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus

This presentation celebrates the museum’s fifth anniversary with a significant donation to the M+ Collections from Herzog & de Meuron (established Switzerland, 1978), the world-renowned architecture firm that designed the museum building.

The exhibition showcases newly donated models, drawings, and material samples that reveal Herzog & de Meuron’s innovative architectural practice. It focuses on built and unbuilt projects in China, including landmark buildings such as M+ (2012–2021), Tai Kwun in Hong Kong (2006–2018), and the National Stadium in Beijing (2002–2008), as well as urban planning projects that respond to how territory and landscape fundamentally shape the form of cities. These works reflect the firm’s deep engagement with China since the early 2000s, set against the backdrop of the country’s rapid economic growth and ambitious infrastructure development.

Referencing the Kabinett—Herzog & de Meuron’s permanent repository of architectural knowledge for research and study—the objects are presented in exact replicas of the wooden vitrines developed for the firm’s foundation in Basel. As co-founder Jacques Herzog noted in 2002, ‘Since architecture itself cannot be exhibited, we are forever compelled to find substitutes.’ This open storage format offers visitors an intimate glimpse into the creative processes and thinking behind their groundbreaking works.