Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer Architects is an architectural office based in Zurich, Switzerland. It is led by the Swiss-born architect Annette Gigon and the U.S.-born architect Mike Guyer. Works by the office have been widely published and are admired for their formal logic and legibility, their sensitive handling of materials, and their skillful use of color.
Annette Gigon was born on May 24, 1959, in Herisau, Switzerland.[1] She graduated in architecture in 1984 from ETH Zurich. She worked in the offices of Marbach and Rüegg 1984–1986 and Herzog & de Meuron 1986–1988, and also in her own practice from 1987.
Mike Guyer was born on July 5, 1958, in Columbus, Ohio.[1] He attended primary and high school in Zurich, and graduated in architecture in 1984 from ETH Zurich. He worked at Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam 1984–1987. He established his own office in 1987, and was an assistant lecturer under Prof. Hans Kollhoff at ETH Zurich 1987–1988.
Gigon and Guyer were visiting professors at EPF Lausanne 2001–2002, and visiting professors at ETH Zurich from 2008. Since 2012, they hold a joint Professorship for Architecture And Construction at ETH Zurich.[2] Both are members of the Federation of Swiss Architects (BSA), and Annette Gigon is a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.[3]
Practice
Extension of Kunstmuseum Winterthur
Gigon and Guyer established Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer Architects in 1989. As of 2011, the practice consisted of the two founding partners, an office manager, seven team leaders, and about 50 co-workers.[4] It wins the majority of its commissions by taking 1st Prize in open or invited competitions.[5]
Gigon/Guyer established its reputation in the 1990s through its work on houses and museums, notably the Kirchner Museum in Davos, devoted to the art of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Museum Liner in Appenzell. In 1998 it won 1st Prize in a competition for the design of the archaeological Museum and Park Kalkreise in Osnabrück, Germany, near the site of the ancient Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. It is noticeable that the firm soonly attracted international attention after its museum designs, such as the already mentioned Kirchner Museum in Davos, the Museum Extension in Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Appenzell, or the Archaeological Museum and Park in Kalkriese near Osnabrück, Germany. The other museum (the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne) has later expanded the list.[6]
Since 2000, the practice has expanded its range to include residential development projects (many of which have won the "Good Architecture" awards of the municipalities in which they are located[7]) and office buildings.
Recently, Gigon/Guyer have completed several important projects in Zürich West, a former industrial district. They include Prime Tower, Switzerland’s tallest building from 2011 to 2015, and a new office complex on Lagerstrasse, a collaborative project with Max Dudler and David Chipperfield. In the same district, they have designed a residential tower, office building, and two contemporary art museums as additions to Löwenbräu Areal, a former brewery and listed industrial landmark.
Characteristics
Kirchner Museum
According to Fiona McLachlan, a practicing architect who teaches at the University of Edinburgh, the buildings of Gigon/Guyer are "spatially clear, legible, and logical", with a "simplicity of form derived predominantly from function."[8] The museum projects typically employ a subdued, material-based palette, with a series of simple, white-painted spaces in the interior and exteriors that "avoid being bland, characterless containers by their poetic use of materials."[8] But many of their other projects utilize strong colors inside and outside, often chosen together with artist Harald Müller, a frequent collaborator.
Davos is an Alpine resort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 10,832 (2020). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Ranges.
Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. is a Swiss architecture firm headquartered in Basel (Switzerland), founded by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.
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Founded in 1854, the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH) at ETH Zurich in Switzerland is an architecture school in Zürich, providing education in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design. It has around 1,900 students, 350 staff members, and an annual budget of CHF 40 million.
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Valerio Olgiati is a Swiss architect. He initially studied architecture at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Zurich, Switzerland, after which he lived in Switzerland, followed by Los Angeles in the United States.
The Kunst Museum Winterthur is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local Kunstverein. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art – first Impressionism, then Post-Impressionism and especially Les Nabis, through post-World War II and recently created works by Richard Hamilton, Mario Merz and Gerhard Richter.
Luise (Lux) Guyer was a Swiss architect, remembered above all for designing buildings for the SAFFA women's fair, Bern, in 1927.
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Christian Kerez is a Swiss architect, architectural photographer and a university professor.
Annette Gigon is a Swiss architect born in Herisau, Switzerland. She is a founding partner of the office Gigon/Guyer and held a Chair of Architecture at ETH Zurich.
Gion Antoni Caminada is a Swiss architect and professor of architecture at the ETH Zurich. He is known for his works in and around the Swiss village of Vrin, including the Stiva da morts mortuary. Many of Caminada's projects are built of wood in a minimalist style mixing modern design with traditional Swiss methods and materials.
Jürg Conzett is a Swiss civil engineer known for designing bridges. After studying at the ETH Zurich and working for architect Peter Zumthor, Conzett started his own civil engineering office in 1988. Perhaps his best known works are a series of three pedestrian bridges located on the Veia Traversina trail of the Viamala in Switzerland. Though many of Conzett's works are in Switzerland, he has designed bridges elsewhere.
Auszeichnungen für gute Bauten Graubünden is a Swiss based architecture prize that has been awarded by the Gute Bauten Graubünden since 1987.
Raphael Zuber is a Swiss architect.
Sacha Leo Cornel Menz is a Swiss architect, co-founder of sam architects, full professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, former Dean of the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH) and co-founder of the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) at ETH-Zurich.
Silke Langenberg is a German-Swiss heritage scientist and architect. She is a full professor of construction heritage and preservation in the department of architecture at ETH Zurich.
The Chapel of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic church located in Sumvitg, Surselva Region, canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.
The Kirchner Museum Davos is an art museum dedicated to the life and work of the German Expressionist artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, located in Davos, Switzerland. Kirchner lived in Davos from 1918 to 1938, and was inspired to create many of his works there.
The Bridge near Wiesen, also known as The Bridge at Wiesen, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, from 1926. It depicts the Wiesen Viaduct, south of Davos, in Switzerland. It is signed on the bottom right of the center and is dated '26' on the back. The painting is held at the Kirchner Museum Davos.
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