Herzog & de Meuron. Entre o vestido e a nudez

Abstract

Herzog and de Meuron have been developing, over the past three decades, an architecture characterized by the diversity of themes and forms of embodiment, as a direct consequence of the specificity in the way each project is developed. The following narrative consists of a series of essays where the work of Herzog & de Meuron is analyzed through the use of an analogy with the acts of "dressing" and "strip" in a human sense, between the significant ornament and the essential structure of the body. The creative process starts along with the conception of the mold, a system that crystallizes concept and intentions and determines the resulting shape and consistency of the architectural object. The body which it is then extracted reveals strong programmatic reiterations condensed in its basic geometrical shape. This rude strength of the pragmatic object is often tempered by tattooing pictorial significant elements in its surface which, in a global observation, generates a mutual relativity - between ornament and body - leading to a general transformation in the symbolic nature of the building. The spread and concealment of the initial hardness of the object can also be achieved by wrapping the body with layers of clothing that renew its appearance and encourage the richness of the perceptual experience. Gradually, the diversity of layers merges to solidify, then, in the surface's nudity: structural, porous, symbolic and with a potential perceptive wealth. The metaphoric sequence in the way architectural thematics are identified and analyzed does not represent a chronological evolution of Herzog & de Meuron's works. The themes are there in specific moments, often repeated in the distance of years and in very different stages of production, always waiting to be reinvented in the sense of an improvement.