Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland formed a partnership architectural firm，Herzog & de Meuron，in their hometown Basel in 1978. The two architects have known each other since childhood，and both studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Herzog and de Meuron claimed wide international attention for domestic projects such as the Ricola Storage Building (1987，Laufen，Basel-County) with its innovative façades of layered plasterboard，and the Central Signal Box (1999，Basel) noted for the copper panel covered main building，and its inorganic simple surfaces richly shaded according to conditions of light.

They have undertaken a number of acclaimed international projects，including the Dominus Winery (1998，Napa Valley，California)，with surface walls of wire mesh filled with stones; Tate Modern (2000)，converted from a power plant in London's Bankside; and the Prada Aoyama Epicenter (2003，Tokyo) and the Laban Dance Centre (2003，London)，with their impressive glass panel facades.

In 2001，the team won the Pritzker Prize and was noted for "refining traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity，while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques. "
Herzog says that the team was able to achieve success in making distinctive buildings with a wide range of materials "simply because the world offered us an opportunity to use many different materials・・Everything depends on how we use the materials that can be magically fantastic. "

Herzog and de Meuron，both avid soccer fans，designed the soccer stadium in Basel. Their World Cup soccer stadium Allianz Arena (2005，Munich) continues their trademark attention to innovative façade treatment. For this project，they created a facade of translucent tufted material，lit from within，that makes that structure luminescent. The Arena’s retractable membrane-like roof permits ultraviolet light to filter through，allowing the natural turf on the playing field to thrive.

Their design for the de Young Museum (2005) in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park features a façade of intricately textured sheets of dazzling embossed and perforated copper.
The team’s current and greatly anticipated project is the National Stadium，now under construction as the main arena for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.