The Audemars Piguet Museum is designed by BIG(Bjarke Ingels Group) led by Bjarke Ingels, a famous Danish architect. A museum dedicated to Audemars Piguet, a top Swiss watchmaker. In 2014, Bjarke Ingels Group won a competition for Audemars Piguet to expand its historic building. The historic building was the workshop of Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet in 1875, where the brand was originally conceived. After a century, the historic building has been transformed into a semi-submersible structure with a very contemporary architectural style.
The architect hopes to use this project to highlight the philosophical spirit contained in the brand itself and its close connection with the Jura Valley (Vallée de Joux). This museum embedded in the landscape slowly rises from the ground, showing the brand's superb manufacturing technology and its year-to-year communication with the local environment. The architect tried to express the brand's perfect watchmaking craftsmanship that has continued to this day through the spiral space form, and at the same time allows visitors to communicate with these masterpieces and the craftsmen behind them with little distance. The architect designs a craft display and workshop space in the center of the museum, so that visitors can better recognize and understand the superb skills of the brand. In addition, the architect also tried to present this display of craftsmanship in the entire museum space as much as possible. From every Angle, this spiral-shaped building is the most attractive sight on the entire hill.
This kind of architectural form that rises slowly from the ground and uses curved glass as a load-bearing structure is the first time in history to reach such a physical height. It can be described as a miracle both in engineering and in design. The architects used curved glass windows to support the entire steel roof, with a brass mesh running along the outer surface to regulate light and temperature. The roof with green plants further cools down and treats the water in the museum space.
The architect lets the museum blend into the local natural landscape terrain through this unique spiral form. He makes the interior ground following the slope of the existing terrain, and adjusts the common linear visitor experience to a spiral-shaped exhibition space. Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, visitors can directly enjoy the mountain scenery. The glass wall rotates in a clockwise direction, and finally disappears in the center of the building. In the center, there are craft display and workshop spaces. Through this design, the architect allows visitors to walk into the movement step by step.
In winter, the scene after snow is even more charming.
For a creative design project like the Audemars Piguet Museum, architects or interior designers will definitely encounter some challenges and it is not easy to get approval from clients. Don’t worry, Videa Vision's photo-realistic renderings or 3D animations can help you overcome those challenges and get the approval from your clients more easily by visualizing your concepts more accurately and beautifully.
