Architecture
Contemporary
The Musée international d'horlogerie is a work of contemporary architecture. “It’s the first comprehensive project in Europe of a contemporary troglodyte architecture” expressed the architects of the MIH, the Zurich architects Pierre Zoelly and the la Chaux-de-Fonds born Georges-J. Haefeli.
Structure
Created from 1972 to 1974, their work occupies an underground volume of 20,000 m3, dug into the site of a park. The concrete structure conforming to the slope of the site has created an underground layout on three levels which correspond to the main areas of the museum: the floor reserved for temporary exhibitions/showcases and assemblies, the room intended for ancient collectables, the room devoted to manufacturing and decoration techniques as well as the floor from the 20th century.
Open spaces
The open spaces are subtly cut out not only by the play of levels but also by the luminosity accentuated by natural light. Indeed the museum opens to the outside by the large windows in the entry, the astronomical gallery and restoration atelier. These window panes, like those of the administrative pavilion and the gallery of the belfry, are integrated into walls and waves of curved shape emerging forcefully in the park. “These walls and roofs like waves that echo, inspired by the seaside and the beautiful protective structures found there. Ours are particularly visible after snowstorms” underline the two creators whose work was notably rewarded by the Prize of concrete architecture in 1977.
Luminosity
This distinction was followed, in 1978, by the European Museum Prize of the Year 1977 which paid particular tribute to the work of museographers Serge Tcherdyne, Pierre Bataillard and Mario Galloponi. Elegance of materials, poetry of the atmosphere, and sobriety of presentation characterize the interior design. Indirect lighting enhances the play of perspective. The spherical and cylindrical display cases, whose shape responds to the roundness of the dials, do not obstruct the space.
“The ingenious lighting, the choice of levels and the division of the exhibition area into independent and yet always visible spaces reach the limits of the impossible in the museum world - the visitor is constantly stimulated without ever being exhausted” (Kenneth Hudson, in “European Museum Prize of the Year 1977”, National Heritage, 1978, p.25).