Lecture date: 2011-02-28
During the first meeting of Tilo Herlach, Simon Hartmann and Simon Frommenwiler, the three young architects about to found their office at a kitchen table pragmatically wrote down a mission statement for HHF architects: ‘We want to build. We want to build internationally. We want to collaborate with other offices.’ Eight years and about 20 built projects later they will try to tell why they think that this overambitious mission statement was helping them to build more then others do at the beginning of their career, why they think that it is important to build a lot and why mission statements are not so important after all.Â
HHF architects was founded in 2003 by Tilo Herlach, Simon Hartmann and Simon Frommenwiler. Since then HHF architects has realised projects in Switzerland, Germany, China, Mexico and the USA. The scope of work ranges broadly and includes large-scale construction, e.g., fashion centre Labels Berlin 2; interior design, e.g., the Confiserie Bachmann in Basel; masterplanning, e.g., the public space and mobility strategy for the Praille Acacias Vernets, Geneva; public structures, e.g., Ruta del Peregrino Lookout Point of a pilgrimage route in Mexico; or the Baby Dragon pavilion in the Jinhua Architecture Park, China. From the beginning HHF has sought collaborations with other architects, artists and specialists in order to widen the view on a project and enrich the quality of a specific proposal. In addition to building, teaching is an important activity of the office.
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