On 1 April 2025, Jacques Herzog, founder of the world-renowned Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, was welcomed for a lecture at Bozar in Brussels. Ahead of the event, A spoke with him about his past and recent work, as well as his general approach to design, which is based on human perception and the effect that a space can have on each and every one of us. “If there is one thing that architecture excels at, it is having a direct impact on our physical and emotional states.”

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron founded their architectural firm in Basel in 1978. With offices in eight cities (Basel, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Munich, New York, Paris and San Francisco), the group now has no fewer than 600 employees and 16 partners. Over the past 50 years, it has completed more than 600 projects in over 40 countries. Among the best known – particularly to the general public – are the Tate Modern in London (2000), the Allianz Arena in Munich (2005), the National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics (2008) – nicknamed the Bird’s Nest – the Vitra Haus in Weil am Rhein (2009), the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (2016) and the Küppersmühle Museum in Duisburg (2021). Herzog & de Meuron won the Pritzker Prize in 2001.