What do the Plastic Chair by Charles & Ray Eames, the Bench line by Jasper Morrison, the Panton Chair by Verner Panton and the wall clocks by George Nelson all have in common? They’re all produced by Swiss family-owned furniture company Vitra.
But Vitra isn’t just a company that produces famous furniture collections. There’s the Vitra Design Museum, which runs exhibitions about design’s relationship to other creative disciplines and people’s daily lives. And there’s VitraHaus, Vitra’s flagship store, which offers up plenty of inspirational ideas for the home. For architecture aficionados, the Vitra Campus offers visitors the chance to learn about buildings designed by renowned architects such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando.
Founded in 1934 by Willi Fehlbaum in Birsfelden, Switzerland as a shopfitting business, the company moved its production to Weil am Rhein, Germany in 1950. After a major fire destroyed most of the production areas in 1981, Fehlbaum’s successor decided to rebuild them in collaboration with famous architects. This gave rise to the many pavilions and projects that form the Vitra Campus, the Vitra Design Museum and VitraHaus – a unique ensemble of contemporary architecture.
The new factory buildings were designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw and completed in 1983. Grimshaw developed a corporate identity that took into account future expansions planned by the company. Six months later, production started up again in a building where the facade was covered with lacquered aluminium, intended to be a reference model for future structures at Vitra Campus.
In 1984, American artist Claes Oldenburg created the large sculpture Balancing Tools, which consists of a hammer, screwdriver and pliers – tools used in chairmaking – that were enlarged and fused together to create a gate. Today, you can see it near the Vitra Design Museum and the factory building, which were both designed by world-famous architect Frank Gehry. Known as one of the most famous Vitra pavilions, the Vitra Design Museum’s towering structure and ramps immediately catches the eye.
The unmistakable style of Tadao Ando is recognisable in the Pavilion of Conference, which was created in 1993. By limiting the colour palette, by using next to no decoration and by having the windows face out onto a natural landscape, he created an atmosphere highly conducive to concentration. Another breathtaking project is the Fire Station building by Zaha Hadid. As her very first project and the work that launched her career, it quickly became iconic.
Even the company’s flagship store, VitraHaus, is an architectural symbol. Renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron were inspired by the archetypal gabled house design, typically used for private homes. They extended the form and then stacked a series of these houses on top of one another. The resulting work features clearly laid-out, homey spaces and dramatic views, thanks to the way the houses are interlinked. Other notable projects include the Petrol Station by Jean Prouvé, the Dome by Richard Buckminster Fuller, the factory building by Álvaro Siza, the Vitra Slide Tower by Carsten Höller, the Bus Stop by Jasper Morrison, and – last but not least – the new Schaudepot building by Herzog & de Meuron, inaugurated this year and designed to tell the story of the company.
Today, Vitra seeks to continue pushing the boundaries of the design discipline by combining technical and conceptual expertise with the creativity of contemporary designers. Its many inspiring structures are an important way it creates an atmosphere in which innovation can flourish.
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