VitraHaus

Herzog & de Meuron, 2010

The VitraHaus is Vitra’s flagship store. Here, visitors have the opportunity to experience the furniture in the Home Collection, which is displayed in inspiring arrangements. It was with this in mind that the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron let themselves be inspired by the typical house shape for their design. The VitraHaus thus consists of gabled houses, particularly apt for presenting home furniture, which have been stretched in length, nested within each other and fitted with large windows at the front.

The projections of the individual 12 houses float up to 15 breathtaking metres over each other, creating a “stack of houses” that almost looks chaotic. At 57 metres long, 54 metres wide and 21.3 metres tall, the VitraHaus towers over the other buildings on the Campus – and not only provides an overview of the Vitra Home Collection, but also a view of the surrounding areas – near and far.

The VitraHaus is impressive both by day and by night. During the day, the VitraHaus offers a lovely view of the surroundings, and at night, the building glows in the dark, while its shape seems to dissolve. The rooms open up and the fronts fitted with glass turn into vitrines of sorts, which glow over the Campus and the surroundings.

About the architects

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were both born in Basel in 1950 and studied architecture from 1970 to 1975 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich under the professors Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli. After completing their architectural degrees in 1975, they established an independent architecture firm in 1978. Since 1994 they have held a guest professorship at Harvard University and taught as professors at the ETH Zurich, where they founded the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute. The Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in 2001, followed by the Praemium Imperiale in 2007.

The architectural office of Herzog & de Meuron has won international recognition for projects such as Dominus Winery in Napa Valley (1998), Tate Modern London (2000), Prada Epicenter Tokyo (2003) and more recently, Beijing National Stadium (2007), erected for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Recently completed projects include the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the new Transforming Tate Modern building.

Further Projects for Vitra:
2016 Vitra Schaudepot on the Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany

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