294 VitraHaus – Herzog & de Meuron

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

Process

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

294_CP_220518_Vitra-Campus-Panorama_2022

The Vitra Campus as of 2022

Drawings

Team

Partners: Jacques Herzog; Pierre de Meuron; Wolfgang Hardt (Partner in Charge)
Project Team: Guillaume Delemazure (Associate, Project Architect); Thomasine Wolfensberger (Associate, Project Architect); Charlotte von Moos (Project Architect); Katharina Rasshofer; Harald Schmidt; Sara Secci; Nicolas Venzin; Isabel Volkmar; Thomas Wyssen

Facts

Client: Vitra Verwaltungs GmbH, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Planning: Architect Planning: Herzog & de Meuron, Basel, Switzerland; Architect Construction: Mayer Baehrle Freie Architekten BDA, Lörrach, Germany; HVAC Engineering: Krebser und Freyler Planungsbüro GmbH, Teningen, Germany; HVAC Engineering: Stahl + Weiss, Freiburg, Germany; Construction Management: Krebser und Freyler Planungsbüro GmbH, Teningen, Germany; Electrical Engineering: Krebser und Freyler Planungsbüro GmbH, Teningen, Germany; Plumbing Engineering: Krebser und Freyler Planungsbüro GmbH, Teningen, Germany; Mechanical Engineering: Krebser und Freyler Planungsbüro GmbH, Teningen, Germany; Structural Engineering: ZPF Ingenieure AG, Basel, Switzerland; Landscape Design: August Künzel Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Basel, Schwitzerland; Kitchen Design: Edgar Fuchs GmbH, Kirchentellinsfurt, Germany
Specialist / Consulting: Acoustic Consulting: Horstmann und Berger, Altensteig, Germany; Building Physics Consulting: Horstmann und Berger, Altensteig, Germany; Facade Consulting: Frener & Reifer GmbH, Brixen, Italy; Fire Protection Consulting: IBB Grefrath Ing. Büro, Sallneck , Germany; Lighting Consulting: Ansorg GmbH, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany; Multimedia: Zihlmann electronics GmbH, Freiburg, Germany; Graphics: Graphic Thought Facility, London, United Kingdom; Interior Fitting: Visplay International GmbH, Weil am Rhein, Germany; Curtain Design: Création Baumann, Weberei und Färberei AG, Langenthal, Switzerland
Building Data: Site Area: 132'923 sqft, 12'349 sqm; Gross floor area (GFA): 44'411 sqft, 4'126 sqm; Footprint: 14'251 sqft, 1'324 sqm; Length: 187 ft, 57 m; Width: 177 ft, 54 m; Height: 68 ft, 21 m; Gross volume (GV): 803'585 cbft, 22'755 cbm; Facade surface: 83'958 sqft, 7'800 sqm
Links: www.vitra.com

Bibliography

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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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