The Communicative Façade. Interdisciplinarity in the Work of Herzog & de Meuron and Kuehn Malvezzi

Abstract

The façade, as the exterior layer of the building, has a remarkable communicative capacity. Historically, it has been considered the result of the accumulation of signs and ornaments that transmit cultural and political conceptions. During the last decades, as can be seen from the unique cases developed in this article, the façade has become a fertile ground for experimentation with different disciplines neighboring architecture, from a material, technical and conceptual point of view.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Herzog & de Meuron experimented with different strategies to make the facades of their buildings acquire a representative image that could reflect the conceptual foundations of the project. To achieve this, they collaborated with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Remy Zaugg and Thomas Ruff. The Eberswalde Library can be considered the culmination of this period. Years later and with some influence from the early work of the Swiss office, Kuehn Malvezzi in collaboration with Michael Riedel have demonstrated in the Momentane Monumente exhibition and in the façade of the Saarland Museum extension a willingness to use architecture and conceptual art as a means of making socio-cultural and political realities visible. In the work of these architects and artists, the façade reflects their communicative intentions and establishes itself as an architectural element capable of manifesting the processes that make it possible.