More is More
HdM’s Website Overhaul
Francis Aguillard
February 2024
Along with a bizarre mix of product spec sheets, ArchDaily posts, Gmail, house sets, and maybe the project page of one or two design firms, a recent mainstay in my tabs has been Herzog & de Meuron’s (HdM) new website, unveiled in early 2023. If their previous website was esoteric, poetic, and frenetic, this one is direct, soothing, and amenable.
HdM’s former website deserves as much attention as the new one; even as recently as 2019, it had all the energy and UX flair (and not devoid of the usual impracticality) of a trendy academic firm. A clean white background and simple Swiss typeface filled with project windows at the command of a mouse click—each one layered atop another in chaotic fashion. Many architects and designers remember the site fondly. It created a visual display that re-presented how we experienced the internet—always halfway between focus and pandemonium, vaguely aware of the wake of information behind us, creating mental collages as idiosyncratic as each one of us. Or perhaps we loved that HdM, a large, established, and well-oiled firm, could keep all the youthful energy of a start-up in their website.
Former Herzog & de Meuron website. Screenshot by author.
Now decidedly more professional, HdM has approached their revamped website as a public and professional good that seems to prioritize ease of navigation and a certain degree of simplicity over eccentricity and experimentation. Perhaps the transition from esoteric and lofty to more straightforward and practical mirrors a general trend within architectural communication and design, favoring plain, no-nonsense language and messaging.
This shift in language proves most effective in the website section that addresses sustainability—I’d implore you to spend some time with it. Given HdM’s long-standing commitment to building rehabilitation, responsible urbanism, and local material usage, the statement reads as one of the few serious ones posted today, defining sustainability as more than just material usage or operational and embodied carbon.
Similar to its previous incarnation, the site has nearly every project HdM has ever done (619 at last count) cataloged chronologically. #001 dates back to 1978, a simple attic conversion in Riehen, Switzerland; #036, 1986, cladding for a house in Fischingen, Germany; #119, 1994, the Central Signal Box in Basel; #226 the Bird’s Nest; #305 TriBeCa’s 56 Leonard Street—and so on and so forth.
#001, Attic Conversion (1978). Elevation. Herzog & de Meuron.
Once one navigates the genealogical tour de force and selects a specific project, an unprecedented amount of material is available for viewing: finished photographs, construction photos, overall plans, models, detail sections, low-res 35mm design process photos, etc. The abundance of images is one of the site’s biggest departures from the previous iteration. In 2019, we were lucky to get four images of a project. Now, HdM has opened the floodgates, welcoming us into their world and process.
If the old website had all the eroticism of that Hinge match whose Instagram only displays elusive pictures with the occasional toned body part eliding the frame, the new website has embraced its identity as a silver fox who has a lot to teach you, if only you would be a good boy and sit down and listen.
#160, Laban Dance Center (2003). Studying a 1:2 model of the shell of the building. Herzog & de Meuron.
#160, Laban Dance Center (2003). Design process & prototyping. Herzog & de Meuron.
HdM’s “more is more” approach situates their brand temporally while collectively framing the act of architecture. We see employees throughout the firm’s history actively participating in the design process, the public enjoying the spaces, and the workers who built them. The celebration of the construction worker in project after project and image after image is perhaps one of the most refreshing aspects of HdM’s new website. Whether consciously or not, architects often distance themselves from the workers who construct their buildings, but HdM brings the laborer back into frame.
#319, Naturbad Riehen (2014). Construction photo. Herzog & de Meuron.
