Immerse Yourself in A Luxury Spiral Watch Museum

Opened to the public in 2020, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is a great place to enjoy art exhibitions while seeing the process of making luxury watches. The museum was designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) with a unique spiral shape that blends contemporary touches and historical value from the Audemars Piguet watch brand.

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is designed by BIG with a unique and attractive spilar shape.

Audemars Piguet has been part of the complex of exclusive watch workshops and factories in Le Brassus, Switzerland, since 1875. Its old watch house is located quite remotely on the slope of the Jura Mountains valley. Therefore, to complement the old building, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet was built with a spiral shape to be more integrated into the surrounding environmental conditions. As a result, the museum seems to be an 'antonym' in a fantastic landscape. The design implies a striking but soft shape, contemporary but timeless, and quirky but still functional.

The museum is located in the valley of the Jura Mountains, Switzerland, which is beautiful.

Aerial view of Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet.

Thanks to its spiral shape, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet space program can be arranged easily and flow without intervening in the slope of the ground. The spaces inside this museum are also guaranteed sufficient sunlight intake because each curved wall is designed with a smooth increase in height, forming a dynamic spiral wave. In each increment, BIG places a glass wall covered with brass mesh on its outer surface to dispel excess sunlight in the summer and regulate the air temperature in winter.

Inside the museum, there is a watchmaking workshop that can be seen directly by visitors.

Exhibition space of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet.

The arched walls also play a role in supporting the steel structure on the roof of the museum. In its design, BIG chose to use the concept of a green roof with grass that will help the building's cooling system and water absorption. On the other hand, the green roof is also BIG's way of blending the museum's visuals with the surrounding context. Thus, when viewed from the environmental side, this Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet has met the energy efficiency requirements set by the Swiss Minergie.

The outer surface of the curved walls of the museum is layered with brass mesh.

Meanwhile, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet offers an intuitive sequence as a spatial experience for its visitors. Like a passageway of time, visitors can see a collection of watches created by Audemars Piguet along the museum's exhibition space. Interestingly, from where they stand, visitors can also see firsthand the process of making watches by experts. Furthermore, the climax of this 'story' is the exhibition hall in the museum's center featuring the most complex collection of watches from Audemars Piguet.

View of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet and its surroundings in winter.

Apart from being a place to create and showcase the watch collections, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is also an ideal space for curating works of contemporary art. As the museum is designed in a contemporary form that wraps its historical heritage.

Floor plan.

Sequence diagram.

View and light diagram.