Maison des Fondateurs Audemars Piguet

Description of the project

La Maison des Fondateurs is a new museum building for luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet that interconnects with the old museum. The new building has a basement floor that serves as underground parking, as well as accommodating archive and engineering rooms. The museum level has exhibition rooms and shops.

The basic structure of the building is striking yet subtle, with an iconic, double-spiralled pavilion. While the basement floor is of reinforced concrete construction, the above-ground sections are built in a lightweight steel-glass construction. The entire pavilion is column-free: structural curved glass walls form chambers within and illuminate the whole pavilion. The horizontal and vertical load transfer on the ground floor is completely supported by the inner and outer glass façade elements. The roof is designed as a single sheet of metal that is continuous in plan, but variable in section.

SunGuard® SNX 60/28 coated solar control glass was selected to help save energy costs due to a lower demand for artificial lighting and air-conditioning. A new generation of this product has been developed with SNX 60. SNX 60 has a beautiful, neutral transparent appearance and low reflection, adding a sophisticated touch to the building and ensuring the comfort and wellbeing of visitors and staff at all times of the year.