APRIL 2010, 1358. Volume CCXXVII

Let bold patronage flourish – but every building needn’t be a show-stopper

Good architecture cannot flourish without enlightened patronage, which must make Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of furniture company Vitra, some kind of patronage patron saint, the Medici of Weil am Rhein. Fehlbaum collects architects as others might collect stamps or snow domes. Since the early 1990s, he has been cultivating a posse of superstars to design new facilities on the ever expanding Vitra campus.

Vitra commissions have launched careers. Zaha Hadid’s first big break was to design a fire station there (which the firemen apparently hated) and now, in a squaring of the circle, Fehlbaum’s near neighbours, Herzog & de Meuron ( just down the road in Basel), are the latest architects-du-jour to be added to his collection. Rowan Moore reports on the extraordinary new VitraHaus in this issue (see page 42).

While Fehlbaum’s approach is in many respects deeply admirable, giving architects the longed-for chance to experiment (up next are SANAA), the ambience on what is essentially an ordinary suburban business park must rank as a tad surreal, like a band comprising entirely of egotistical and cacophonous lead vocalists.

For a resonant and authentic sense of place, you need a boring rhythm section; people (or buildings) content to pump out a dignified backbeat, day in day out, so that others can shine .It’s far more difficult to achieve, but enlightened patronage should extend to the ordinary as well.