Royal Gold Medalists Herzog and de Meuron

22 February, 2007

Q: What does this award mean to you?

Jacques Herzog (JH): "Erica Bolton [public relations advisor] taught us 12 or 15 years ago to anticipate questions but I didn't ancipate that one [laughs].

"I think it's absolutely great. This country has a kind of tradition of ceremonies which a small country like ours doesn't.

"Something like this puts architecture at the forefront…that's the reason why this type of award makes sense today."

Q: "What would be your ideal project in London?"

JH: "For me, it would be a soccer stadium and I'd like to see [Swiss side] FC Basel playing in the Premiership [laughs].

We very much appreciate that people ask us to work with them. We are in the good position that we can choose our work. We don't have to do everything."

Q: "Where else would you like to work in the world - India? South Africa?"

JH: "We are now being offered a huge project in Mexico. Clearly India is also interesting as is South Africa. But it's frightening to think of all the hours you spend on planes with the jetlag getting worse as you get older."

Q: "What do you make of the recent Gazprom competition debacle in Russia?

Pierre de Meuron: "We will certainly take this [event] into consideration where there are similar situations. For me, it was positive that Gazprom was exposed in this way."

Q:: "Do you support Rem Koolhaas' recent call for a boycott of architectural competitions in that case?"

JH: " “You don’t want to have a boycott because you are frustrated but there are significant reasons to re-think the basics of competitions. On the whole, they do produce mediocre results.

But it's still great to have competitions…on the one hand it opens up a market to young people, it also establishes a dialogue with people, cities and so on and it generates a lot of innovation in an office.

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