the foreign/ers take on life at H&dM

“I am a Bratt. get Over it”  Kelly Osborne

(after refusing to dance to DJ SNAX at the satisfactory)

A-can i have french fries?

@bodega

Hey, no one here is complaining…H&dM is a fantastic office and we are all honored to be a part of its practice of architecture. Just sometimes though, we feel we’ve fallen into the schism between its dedication to the pursuit of beauty and the practicality of its execution, and just sometimes we happen to hear people from REX talk, and somehow we feel a connection—a visceral, intellectual, somewhat emotional and ethical connection—to the manner in which they think and speak, and we wonder whether we have lost sight of things here in the sterility of Switzerland, or whether perhaps we’re simply gathering our resources, doing reconnaissance…?

Our favorite traineee/practicant/intern or whatever you want to call her (since we all do the same thing anyway) went back home to finish up her studies. We’re all sure she’ll be back next year since she’ll miss us so dearly, but in the meantime we decided to fashion her some accessories and send her off to diploma-project-land in style. Inspired by our current project, we took some leftover pieces from one of our 1:500 models and constructed a very wearable little string bikini.

She will be greatly missed! xoxoxox

After a two week vacation we came back to find that our quiet Basel office had been targeted by an axe-wielding vandal. Apparently the window of the Garage (in green) had also been broken—twice in the past week, even. Some are speculating that it might have been a disgruntled employee, or perhaps human-rights activists protesting our building in China. But there were no notes scrawled on the walls, and no equipment was stolen. What we find most interesting in the end is the fact that there was no intra-office email announcement about the incident, not even to encourage us to be extra aware of suspicious people or activity…is there something they’re not telling us?

Summer Party 2009

the venue: better than last year’s

the food: slightly better than last year’s but still not good

the music: as bad as last year’s

the crowd: larger than last year’s

the looks: not too shabby, easy on the eyes for sure

the jacques and pierre: dapper as always

This year’s annual summer party was prefaced with partner led tours of select projects, including Harry Gugger’s amazing Schaulager Museum (among everyone’s favorite projects). Unfortunately, since my flight back into Basel was delayed I missed it, and as luck would have it the personal tour was the first and last of its kind—Summer Party 2009 brought with it the sad news of Harry Gugger’s departure from the ranks of H&dM’s senior partners.

Too many years of not having enough say can take its toll…I would have liked to have worked with him at some point, but you can’t blame him for wanting more control over his creativity. His projects will leave a lasting impression.

where all the secret society meetings should take place.

dash snow and seceret, in switzerland

The office, as seen from the east bank of the Rhein. It’s not a bad building to work in most days, but certain floors definitely get better ventilation than others. Rheinweg UG, for example (where we happen to sit now) is the level just above the green gate. We get plenty of fresh air and have a nice view of the water. Just above that on Rheinweg EG, however, the view is still nice but the air is always stale—everytime we walk through it smells of the many men (and we mean many men) and women situated on that floor. It says something when one would rather smell paint fumes than go through there. Do you think they consulted ARUP when figuring out the MEP/HVAC?