Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.
Rheinschanze 6
4056 Basel, Switzerland
Email: info@herzogdemeuron.com
Phone: +41 61 385 5757
Vitra Campus
Weil am Rhein, Germany
Over the past few years Vitra has acquired a wide-ranging Home Collection. The quantity and variety of objects by many different designers led to the idea of building a showroom to present the items to the public. A shop, a cafe linked to the outside and conference rooms complete the program.
The “VitraHaus“ is a direct, architectural rendition of the ur-type of house, as found in the immediate vicinity of Vitra and, indeed, all over the world. The products that will be on display are designed primarily for the private home and, as such, should not be presented in the neutral atmosphere of the conventional hall or museum but rather in an environment suited to their character and use.
By stacking, extruding and pressing – mechanical procedures used in industrial production – simply shaped houses become complex configurations in space, where outside and inside merge. The interior is designed as a spatial sequence with surprising transitions and views of the landscape. The landscape in all its variety – the idyllic Tüllinger Hills, the broad expanse of the railroad tracks, and the urbanized plane of the Rhine – was the incentive to design a building that concentrates on the vertical. In contrast to the other buildings on the Vitra Campus, an essential component of the design involved drawing the outdoors inside. The anticipated increase in visitors – not only individuals but also many schools and other groups – gave added importance to benches, niches, covered waiting zones and entries. These areas for sitting, standing, waiting, and looking are stamped or cut out of the shape of the houses through simple mechanical manipulations. Given the large number of design objects on view inside, all of these areas are conceived as an integral part of the architecture and not as self-contained objects.
Herzog & de Meuron, 2010
The VitraHaus at the entrance relates to the surroundings like a multiple vector.
The shape of the building was developed by defining the spatial needs and experimenting with their layout.
Early studies of stacked volumes and the emerging shape of a house.
Systematic investigation of variations on intersecting, intercut, and pivoted forms, based on existing and abstract house-shaped buildings.
Jacques Herzog, Rolf Fehlbaum and Pierre de Meuron study the intersecting forms.
At three interfaces, staircases create special places and specific routes through the showrooms.
Models and drafts of staircases as distinctive, biomorphic shapes set into the largely open interior.
Models, sketches, and drawings of benches that could be in a living room although they are industrially integrated into the construction of the walls.
Architects and client on-site, checking out materials, lighting, and the colors of the walls.
Concrete construction of the labyrinthine building, poured in situ.
Upon completion, VitraHaus presents an exciting flow of spacious and narrow interiors and becomes a luminous beacon in the landscape.
The Vitra Campus as of 2013
The Vitra Campus as of 2022
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Frank Kaltenbach: “Spatial Sculpture or Furniture Market?. The VitraHaus plays with Simplicity and Complexity.” In: Christian Schittich (Ed.). “Detail. Review of Architecture and Construction. Small-Scale Housing.” english ed. Vol. No. 3, Munich, Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co., 05.2010. pp. 232-233.
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Cyrille Poy: “VitraHaus. Compression Verticale d’une Forme Archétypale. Vertical Compression of an Archetypal Shape.” In: Alban Sauvanet (Ed.). “L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui.” Vol. No. 376, Paris, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, 02.2010. pp. 11-24.
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