The word on the wind was that Tsuyoshi Tane’s Garden House was to be the last addition to the Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein. The wind appears to have been ill-informed, thankfully, for with the project Khudi Bari by Marina Tabassum the Vitra Campus has a new addition that expands and extends it more than just physically....... Khudi Bari by Marina Tabassum, Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein Developed in 2020 by Dhaka, Bangladesh, born and based architect Marina Tabassum as a project for "the
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"When architecture is born, a place is born" opined Japanese architect Tsuyoshi Tane in 2018, continuing, "humans began to understand that by building architecture, a meaning is given to a place, and then that place has a story that can be passed on to others". But for Tane architecture doesn't just bequeath a place meaning and a story, it also "gives memories to a place", memories of the past and memories of the future, collective memories that help create bonds. But memories that are
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With their 1997 exhibition The Work of Charles and Ray Eames the Vitra Design Museum staged one of the first major Charles and Ray Eames retrospectives Twenty years later they return to two of the 20th century's most important creatives with An Eames Celebration: less of Charles and Ray, and more of the diversity, depth and continuing relevance of their work. Charles & Ray Eames. The Power of Design, Vitra Design Museum That it is 20 years since the Vitra Design Museum last dedicated an
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"Have you ever met a robot?" asks the Vitra Design Museum. The answer is yes. The answers to the other 13 questions posed by the exhibition Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine are not necessarily so easily answered: but are important for defining our relationship with digital technology. Vitra Design Museum presents Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine Vitra Design Museum opens one of its major exhibitions this week called ''Hello, Robot. Design between Human and
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Following on from the relative inactivity of August September saw us wind back up towards the 2014 autumn design festival season. But before everything kicked of in Vienna, we enjoyed the exhibitions Okolo Offline Two – Collecting at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, Useful Exhibition by Sanghyeok Lee at the DMY Design Gallery Berlin, Alvar Aalto – Second Nature at the Vitra Design Museum and enjoyed a lovely chat with architect Eberhard Lange on the restoration of Egon Eiermann's Wohnhaus
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1989. A year of social, culture and political upheaval whose effects are still being felt today. The Berlin Wall falls. George Bush is sworn in as 41st President of the United States of America. Nirvana release their debut album Bleach. The Poll Tax is introduced in Scotland. The first episode of The Simpsons airs. And while not wanting to over dramatise the situation, yet clearly and deliberately doing just that in the interests of an introduction, 1989 also saw the opening of the Vitra Design
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Back in 2011 we took umbrage at the fence surrounding the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein and so, taking up Ronald Regan's mantle, issued a challenge to Vitra's Chairman Emeritus Rolf Fehlbaum "Mr Fehlbaum! Tear down this wall" we demanded, "Or at least move it a little. Please" And Rolf Fehlbaum listened. And has indeed moved it a little. Thank you!1 However, being a much more enlightened man than us, Rolf Fehlbaum thought further and not only took the opportunity thus created to invite
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What with mince pies to be eaten, Glühwein to get drunk and travel plans to misco-ordinate, December is generally a very quiet month. However despite all other distractions, in December 2013 we still managed to visit the opening the exhibition "Mensch Raum Maschine Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the far to brief Rethinking The Product – Design “Made in Italy” showcase in Berlin. In addition December 2013 saw the launch of the Vitra Design Museum's book "The
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Visiting the HfG Karlsruhe Sommerloch exhibition was not just a memorable highlight of July 2013 - but also fitting as it marked the start of our own summer pause. Our own Sommerloch. In addition July 2013 saw us visit the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart Rundgang, Art & Design Fit for a King @ Ampelhaus, Oranienbaum and Aus allen Richtungen. Positionen junger Architekten im BDA at Wechselraum Stuttgart......
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The biggest April fool is.... us, for always going to Milan! That said, as ever, we did find a few gems amongst the senseless corporate trash..... And after Milan we had the joy of viewing the latest addition to the Vitra Campus, the Factory Building by SANAA......
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There is an old adage about turning problems into chances, of every cloud having a silver lining, of every thorn having its rose. One of the best examples of such is the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. In the wake of a 1981 fire at the Weil am Rhein production site, Vitra found themselves needing to quickly rebuild. And needing a fire station. The first problem was solved by Nicholas Grimshaw with his Production Hall. The second by Zaha Hadid with her Fire Station. In the intervening 30+
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With our trademark "almost too late, but just sneaking in on time" we bring you Prima by Zaha Hadid. Conceived and realised in cooperation with the Austrian crystal concern Swarowski, Prima is a five piece installation based on Zaha Hadid's sketches for her 1993 Vitra Fire Station project. At the moment Prima is a very expensive, and very, very heavy installation on show in front of said Fire Station; however, if we know Vitra we can well imagine what the next step is... We have no formal, or
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In December 2012 Vitrashop, the shop fitting arm of the Vitra Group, and of course the original rock on which the Vitra seed germinated and grew, took formal occupation of their new distribution centre. Conceived by Tokyo based architects Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa aka SANAA, the imaginatively titled "SANAA Factory Building" is the latest addition to the Vitra Campus and was officially presented to the public on April 19th 2013. Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum first approached Kazuyo Sejima &
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Back in March 2011 we bemoaned the position of the fence surrounding the Vitra production facility in Weil am Rhein, and for all the disruption to the view across the Vitra Campus. Before the construction of the VitraHaus the fence offended no one, but since.... "Mr Fehlbaum, tear down this wall! Or at least move it a little bit. Please.", we cried. Paraphrasing the lonesome cowboy. And much like Mikhail Gorbachev needed two and half years to respond to Ronald Reagan, so too will it take
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Last Friday we spent a highly enjoyable - and successful - day at and with Vitra. Texts to follow. We were just a little irritated by two demarcation issues. Like an analogy for the anthropogenic absurdity that are national borders, Basel Airport sits in both France and Switzerland. And has two passenger exits: One into France, one into Switzerland. We left through the Swiss exit. Our driver was waiting in France. Between us in the terminal building a glass wall. Outside a fence. What
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Some 285 journalists were present for the press preview of Herzog & De Meuron's new VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein on February 12 2010. 285 journalists who were then obliged not to breath a word about what they had experienced until Saturday 20.02.2010...... Lets get the obvious point out the way first. The VitraHaus is magnificent. We approached Herzog & De Meuron's construction on foot from Mühlheimerstrasse and the first view over the car park was every bit as wonderful as we had expected.
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When we were still young, fit and healthy, towns and cities existed. Just existed. These days in order to exist a city needs to be the city of something. And so as one drives along a German motorway, every ten metres or so comes a large brown sign announcing the next conurbation as "Chemnitz - City of the Modernity", "Pied Piper City Hameln" or "Prien am Chiemsee - City of the criminally lazy taxi drivers". Not wanting to be the outsider in this age of claims making, Weil am Rhein has
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