The brain behind the Tate Modern revamp, is to leave Swiss stars Herzog & de Meuron after 19 years to set up on his own.
‘I might set up my practice here in Basel or Zurich. Or maybe even London. I know how I want to organise my company. I want a flat hierarchy. English law favours this; you can set up a limited company and then have an employee’s trust, like Make. I want everybody to be a co-owner. That’s not so easy in Switzerland.
My dream would be for it to be small. I know I could handle a larger practice, but I want it to be more like a family. Indeed, I want to focus more on spending time with my young family. I am also a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and, together with working at the practice, it was all too much – running my projects, looking after the students and doing research.
‘I never intended to be just an academic. I’ll work at Herzog & de Meuron until the end of the year. I have to pass on my projects, so haven’t had too much time to think about my own practice. But it will have a slow start. Lots of people have said I need to create a lot of momentum from the beginning, but that’s not my style. I’m simply too exhausted.’
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