Jacques Herzog will celebrate his sixtieth birthday tomorrow

Basel - Do you know the Beijing Olympic Stadium Bird's Nest or the Munich Allianz Arena? Their co-creator and co-owner of one of the most sought-after architectural firms in the world, Herzog & de Meuron, Jacques Herzog, will celebrate his sixtieth birthday on April 19 this year. He reportedly created his first structure, a cardboard roller coaster, with his colleague Pierre de Meuron in their childhood room when they were six years old. Since then, they have not left each other. Fifty years later, their buildings are among the most remarkable in the world.
Herzog and de Meuron graduated together in architecture from the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and opened their own studio in Basel in 1978. They started modestly, and their global breakthrough came only at the end of the 1990s with the sensitive transformation of an old London power station into the world's largest center for contemporary art, Tate Modern. Five years ago, their football Allianz Arena opened its doors, featuring a skin made of rubber "pillows" that change color according to the club currently playing in it thanks to the lighting.