The architecture practice EM2N
with offices in both Zurich and Berlin, was founded by Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli in 1997 and is currently working on projects in Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Roughly one half of the projects are conversions. Among the office’s best-known completed projects are the Toni-Areal and the Viaduct Arches, both in Zurich. Projects presently at the planning and construction stage include the Museum of Natural History and State Archives, Basel, the Cultural Centre KANAL in Brussels, and the Administrative Building for the European Stability Mechanism and Luxembourg State on the Kirchberg.
EM2N strives to open up to the diverse dynamism of the city and its inhabitants, to appreciate the qualities of its past and to continue the present self-confidently. In doing this we trust that, thanks to the means and collective knowledge it possesses, architecture can arrive at its specific form, also in the present day. As EM2N accepts the complexity of contemporary society and the city with a sceptical optimism and makes this an integral part of its architectural work, we represent a kind of idealistic pragmatism. We do not respond to our built environment’s permanent state of crisis with either irony or drama but rather by taking a cool look at what actually exists.
