Danish firm BIG has been commissioned to expand the headquarters of Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet by adding a spiralling museum that coils up from the landscape.
The Maison des Fondateurs will be located at Audemars Piguet’s historic workshop complex in Vallée de Joux, western Switzerland, where the company has been based since its establishment in 1875. The building looks just like the intricate movements inside its luxurious timepieces.
BIG’s plans for a museum of haute horlogerie, or fine watchmaking, include an interlocking set of circular galleries that are partially embedded in the landscape, forming a succession of exhibitions spaces that culminate in a central pavilion. And the entire interior space is clad in a single sheet of steel covered in brass, carefully sliced to create a glittering ceiling. Just like the gears inside Piguet’s watches, it’s designed to have a sense of precision and movement, frozen in space.