BIG is an international group of engineers, architects, town planners and investors having its offices at Copenhagen, New York, London and Barcelona .The setup is currently involved in plenty of projects throughout Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. They believe that in order to face today’s challenges, architecture has big opportunities to explore.
The office has recently completed a new museum and workshop for Swiss luxury watchmaker Atelier Audemars Piguet. Having 2,373 sq m (roughly 25,500 sq ft) internal area, the building comprises a unique spiraling design topped by a green roof. The project is surrounded by workshops and factories in Le Brassus, La Vallée de Joux, Switzerland.
Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet’s spiraling form was finalized in collaboration with local architecture office CCHE (Atelier Brückner, HG Merz, Lüchinger und Meyer, and Müller Illien were also involved).
The loop of the building consists of 108 roof supportive glass panels, each of which was fabricated in three weeks. The glass panels are sufficiently fulfilling the light requirement of the building and green roof insulates it too. A brass mesh screen on the exterior provides shade .
With the idea being that visitors travel through the building “as they would the spring of a timepiece.” An exhibition displaying 300 of Atelier Audemars Piguet’s finest timepieces takes pride of place, though there are workshop areas too. This is a nice touch and allows visitors to observe watchmakers going about their painstakingly intricate craft – for example, a timepiece may spend up to eight months in the hands of a single watchmaker.
“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,” explains Atelier Audemars Piguet. “Interludes, including sculptures, automata, kinetic installations and mock-ups of intricate mechanical movements, give life and rhythm to various aspects of horological technique and design.”
Particular thing is a unique time piece dubbed Universelle which is displayed at the center of the watch exhibition. The timepiece was created by same firm in 1899 which comprise over 20 complications and 1,168 individual parts.
The work is running in full swing which is expected to be completed in early July 2020. If you want to visit the museum please proceed accordingly.
