Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, born on 19 April and 8 May, 1950, respectively, in Basel, Switzerland. Both studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. In 1978, they jointly founded the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in Basel (additional partners: 1991 Harry Gugger, 1994 Christine Binswanger, 2004 Robert Hösl, 2004 Ascan Mergenthaler, 2006 Stefan Marbach).
Jacques Herzog taught as a guest professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1983, and accepted a professorship at Harvard University in 1994. Pierre de Meuron held a guest professorship at Harvard in 1989 and was also called to serve on the faculty in 1994. In 1999 they assumed teaching positions at the ETH Zurich. In 2002 they founded the ETH Studio Basel / Contemporary City Institute together with Roger Diener and Marcel Meili.