Cevisama, the international ceramic tile, bathroom furnishings and natural stone fair has put together what is set to be the biggest commercial showcase of the last decade. And that is with three months still to go before the show, which runs from 28th January to 1st February 2019, opens its doors. With a view to delivering what visitors and exhibitors are expecting, the organizers are aiming to complement this commercial success with a qualitative leap in its program of parallel events. They have therefore devised a program for the week that will make it impossible for the best manufacturers, distributors, architects, designers, interior designers and developers from all around the world not to attend.

Indeed, the CevisamaLab Architecture and Design Forum – Cevisama’s cultural component – will feature leading international speakers from all of these fields. One is Swiss Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jacques Herzog, who has just confirmed his participation.

Jacques Herzog established Herzog & de Meuron with Pierre de Meuron in Basel in 1978. The partnership has grown over the years – Christine Binswanger joined the practice as Partner in 1994, followed by Robert Hösl and Ascan Mergenthaler in 2004, Stefan Marbach in 2006, Esther Zumsteg in 2009, Andreas Fries in 2011, Jason Frantzen and Wim Walschap in 2014 and Michael Fischer in 2016. An international team of about 40 Associates and 400 collaborators is working on projects across Europe, the Americas and Asia. The firm‘s main office is in Basel with additional offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and Copenhagen.

Herzog & de Meuron have designed a wide range of projects from the small scale of a private home to the large scale of urban design. While many projects are highly recognized public facilities, such as their stadiums and museums, they have also completed several distinguished private projects including apartment buildings, offices, and factories. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been awarded numerous prizes including the Pritzker Architecture Prize (USA) in 2001, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (UK) and the Praemium Imperiale (Japan), both in 2007. In 2014, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP).

Jacques Herzog was born in Basel in 1950. He studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) from 1970 to 1975 with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli. He was a visiting tutor at Cornell University, USA in 1983. With Pierre de Meuron, he is visiting professor at Harvard University, USA (1989, 1994-). From 1999 until 2018 he was professor at ETH Zürich and co-founder of ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute. In 2001, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize with Pierre de Meuron, and together they co-founded the charitable foundation Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel in 2015.