Gigon/Guyer, or Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer Architects, is a Zurich architecture office led by Annette Gigon, born in Herisau in 1959, and Mike Guyer, born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1958. Both graduated from ETH Zurich in 1984; Gigon then worked for Herzog & de Meuron and Guyer for OMA in Rotterdam, and they set up the joint office in 1989. It wins most of its commissions as first prize in competitions, and since 2012 the two have held a joint professorship at ETH Zurich. The office is admired for its handling of materials and colour. Since 2000 its work has spread from houses and museums to housing and offices.
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The practice made its name in the 1990s with museums whose interiors are typically simple, white-painted rooms within a subdued, material-based palette. The Kirchner Museum Davos (1992), designed from 1989 and devoted to the art of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, was followed by the Museum Liner (Kunstmuseum Appenzell) (1998). In Zürich the Prime Tower (2011), a 126-metre office tower, was the tallest building in Switzerland until the Roche Tower in Basel overtook it in 2015.
