A new museum has been designed for Audemars Piguet near their headquarters in Le Brassus in the Vallee de Joux in Switzerland. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) designed the spiral shaped glass walled museum after the workshop that Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Piguet opened in the 1800’s. The building was meant to honor the company’s tradition and history while also showing their forward thinking innovation. Curved glass walls rise up to support a steel roof featuring a green roof to help regulate temperature and absorb water. The inside of the building continues the spiral theme and visitors walk through the space as if they were walking through the spring inside a watch. “We wanted visitors to experience our heritage, savoir-faire, cultural origins and openness to the world in a building that would reflect both our rootedness and forward-thinking spirit. But, before all, we wanted to pay tribute to the watchmakers and craftspeople who have made what Audemars Piguet is today, generation after generation.”
The museum contains sculptures, automata, moving installations, as well as hundreds of watches from the company’s 200 year history. The combination of the complex architecture is meant to mimic and remind one of the complex nature of the Grande complication movement, which if featured at the very center of the inner spiral.
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