24 stops

For the IBA Basel project “24 Stops”, artist Tobias Rehberger designed cross-border landmarks between the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (CH) and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein (D). With this project, the two cultural sites, together with the municipalities of Riehen and Weil, not only bring two places of top-class architecture closer together, but also encourage visitors to get to know the border region between Germany and Switzerland in a new way – as a diverse natural and cultural landscape.

All photos: Mark Niedermann © Studio Rehberger

In the southwest of Germany, the border with France and Switzerland lies for many kilometers in the middle of the Rhine. Only at one point, in the north-east of Basel, does a corner of Switzerland dare to cross the border river and jut out towards the foothills of the Black Forest. There, towns such as Lörrach and Weil am Rhein are neighbors of the Swiss town of Riehen. For a long time, the latter was little more than a rural residential area in the Basel conurbation. However, since the Fondation Beyeler became one of its residents, Riehen has also appeared on international maps. The same applies to Weil am Rhein. Here, the furniture manufacturer Vitra has developed its company site into a campus for contemporary architecture, and designers from New York and Los Angeles are now also familiar with the small town.

Since the 1980s, Vitra has been inviting renowned architects to build on its premises. The company is not interested in cultivating a uniform corporate architecture. Rather, over the years, world-renowned architects have grown a collection of buildings that is second to none. These include Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando and Frank O. Gehry as well as Sejima and Nijizawa or Herzog & de Meuron. Their respective design languages are as diverse as their building tasks. They range from a fire station and production building to a museum and show depot. All of them are located on the campus that marks the northern end of the city of Weil am Rhein. Constricted by railroad tracks and residential buildings, it opens up to the open landscape in the east.

All photos: Mark Niedermann © Studio Rehberger

The museum of the Fondation Beyeler is also located on the edge of the town of Riehen, but in the middle of an English landscape park. Old trees, ponds, pavilions and the level of the river Wiese characterize the museum’s ambience. The Beyeler couple chose this location to publicly display their art collection, which they had amassed over 50 years. In the mid-1990s, they commissioned Renzo Piano to build a museum, which opened its doors in 1997. Since then, it has continued to develop. Peter Zumthor, for example, is currently working on an extension that will give the museum a new focal point. And this already plays an important role. This is where a five-kilometer-long, unusual project begins: the “24 Stops” by Tobias Rehberger.

As one of the first IBA-labeled projects, the art trail – also known as the Rehberger Trail – connects the museum locations in Riehen and Weil. Of course, art enthusiasts used to visit both attractions, but in between there was a search across national borders. Little attention was paid to the special features of the landscape of the tri-national agglomeration area. This has changed since 2016, when 24 art objects marked the route from Riehen to Weil am Rhein, with the Fondation Beyeler, the municipality of Riehen, Vitra and the town of Weil am Rhein working in partnership to develop and realize the ideas. German artist Tobias Rehberger has designed an inspiring object for each point where the path branches out: 24 Stops.

This article appeared in G+L 01/2020 on the topic of IBA Basel 2020, which you can purchase here.