The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet immerses visitors in the Swiss manufacturer’s cultural universe past, present and future.
There the visitors can experience the heritage, savoir-faire, cultural origins and openness to the world, in a building that would reflect both the rootedness and forward-thinking spirit of Audemars Piguet.
A space of live craft and encounters entwining contemporary architecture, pioneering scenography and traditional savoir-faire, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet embodies the Manufacture’s free spirit and devotion to the perpetuation of Haute Horlogerie in the Vallée de Joux and beyond.
In 2014, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) won the architectural competition Audemars Piguet hosted to expand its historical premises.
BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes due to the influence of multicultural exchange, global economic flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organisation. BIG challenges the general perception of sustainability as guided by an idea of a moral code and instead seeks to design cities and buildings as triple ecosystems that are ecologically, economically and socially profitable. They see their projects as opportunities to increase the quality of life and they approach the question of sustainability not as a moral dilemma but as a design challenge.
The firm designed a contemporary spiral-shaped glass pavilion to complement the company’s oldest building, where Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet set their workshop, technically a start-up of the old times, in 1875.
This architectural combination symbolises the blend of tradition and forward thinking at the heart of Audemars Piguet’s craftsmanship, while honouring its deep-rooted origins in the Vallée de Joux.
BIG’s high-concept spiral, seamlessly rising from the ground, offers a pristine setting for the masterpieces of technicity and design which have taken shape, year after year, in this remote valley of the Swiss Jura Mountains.
Traditional workshops, where some of the Manufacture’s most complicated timepieces are still perfected today, have been included in the museum’s spatial experience to bring visitors in close contact with Audemars Piguet’s craftspeople.
To offer visitors a diverse experience with crescendos, highpoints and contemplative moments, German museum designer ATELIER BRÜCKNER imagined the composition of the exhibition as a musical score. Interludes, including sculptures, automata, kinetic installations and mock-ups of intricate mechnical movements, give life and rhythm to various aspects of horological technique and design.
From content and messages, they develop surprising ideas and create memorable concepts that set international standards.
Architects, graphic designers, scientists, stage directors, product designers and media designers all work together to deliver architectural and exhibition concepts with the aim of creating a “Gesamtkunstwerk” that is more than the sum of its parts and is able to entrance visitors by appealing to all of their senses.
The Visitors of The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet are also invited to try their hands at some of the ancestral techniques perpetuated by the finishing experts, such as satin brushing and circular graining.
PAYING TRIBUTE TO GENERATIONS OF HUMAN TALENTS
Complementing the display of complicated timepieces, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet showcases the Manufacture’s ancestral savoir-faire through two specialised ateliers situated at the heart of the spiral. The first is dedicated to the Grandes Complications, where each watch composed of more than 648 components spends from 6 to 8 months in the hands of a single watchmaker before leaving the workshop.
The second workshop hosts the Métiers d’Art, where Haute Joaillerie creations are conceived and crafted by highly skilled jewellers, gem-setters and engravers.
The Musée Atelier’s spiral-shaped pavilion, designed by BIG and realised by the Swiss architecture office CCHE, seamlessly rises on walls of structural curved glass. A feat of engineering and design, it is the first construction of its kind to be built at such altitude.
The curved glazing entirely supports the steel roof, while a brass mesh runs along the external surface to regulate light and temperature. The green roof further helps regulate temperature, while absorbing water.
The spiral has been designed to perfectly integrate the surrounding landscape. The floors follow different slants to adapt to the natural gradient of the land and provide the basis of the museum’s inner layout stretched into a linear continuous spatial experience.
Inside, the curved glass walls converge clockwise towards the spiral’s centre, before moving in the opposite direction: visitors travel through the building as they would through the spring of a timepiece.
This new contemporary building reflects the Manufacture’s commitment to architectural innovation regarding manufacturing and cultural projects alike.
The company is also building the new Hôtel des Horlogers in its hometown of Le Brassus, which will open in the summer of 2021—a sustainable, contemporary space at the crossroads of modernity and tradition, once again designed by BIG with CCHE as local partner.
Today, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet offers a unique perspective of the Vallée de Joux and of the history of watchmaking—an ambitious architectural and museographical project made possible thanks to the creativity and collaboration of a host of experts, including architects, engineers and local artisans, as well as numerous departments within Audemars Piguet.
All individuals involved pushed the limits of their craft to reach new heights. This is just the beginning of an ongoing story, it takes time to create a legacy.
Fabio Fabbricatore