Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

Like architecture, watchmaking is the art and science of bringing life into various forms – by combining different materials in consideration with movement, energy, and the intelligence of their users. However, this spiral-shaped building rising above the landscape of Vallée de Joux in Switzerland seems to take this metaphor to the next level.

BIG-designed Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is a museum tucked amid a village in the Swiss Jura Mountains – home to centuries of local watchmaking. The museum, a combination of curved glass walls and a large green roof, discreetly sits next to the historic Audemars Piguet Workshop – originally established in 1875.

Panoramic views of the Vallée de Joux are offered by the museum’s generous floor-to-ceiling windows, designed as if slowly rising out of its green, pristine landscape. To regulate the light and temperature penetrating the museum, its curved exterior is wrapped in brass mesh – creating a subtle yet dramatic transition from its walls to the roof, all without obstructing the magnificent view of the Jura Mountains.

The museum then tops off with a steel roof covered with lush grass and greeneries, which further aided in regulating the temperature indoors, all the while absorbing stormwater from the outdoors.

Despite the delicate form of its curved glass walls, these are actually specially-designed to be load-bearing – which eliminated the need for walls and columns throughout the building. This allowed for a converging plan with slanted floors, where visitors channel in a clockwise, rising and falling direction as they explore the museum as if walking inside a large spring of a watch.

Multiple sculptures and moving models that gracefully demonstrates the art of watchmaking populated the museum. Watches are then displayed through a metal casing reminiscent of astronomical instruments perched on slim columns – all of which safely anchored to the ground. For curious visitors who want to put their watchmaking skills to the test, benches designed as interactive displays offer just that.

Audemars Piguet’s most complicated watch – the Universelle, sits at the center of the museum’s spiral form. This 1899-made gem is then surrounded with other astronomical watches arranged like planets in the solar system.

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet in all its contemporary yet timeless form defines a true paradox – a striking landmark seamlessly integrated into its local landscape, and a seemingly floating architecture that remains to be deeply-rooted to the history of its locale.