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Iwan Baan is one of today’s leading photographers of architecture and urban design. His images document the growth of global megacities and portray buildings by prominent contemporary architects including Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, and Zaha Hadid. The first large retrospective of the Dutch photographer’s work will open at the Vitra Design Museum in autumn 2023. Baan’s vibrant realism puts the focus on people and their relationship to the built environment. His observant eye presents architecture not as an abstract ideal, but as the setting of everyday life, an organic part of the urban fabric – be it suburban sprawl or the booming metropoles of Africa and Asia. The exhibition will include a number of Baan’s iconic works, many of which are familiar from magazines and books, as well as photographs of vernacular and informal architecture all around the world, from the round Tulou of southern China to the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia. Thanks to the great scope of his vision, Baan’s works offer a broad panorama of human building that impressively demonstrates the existential importance of architecture and urban design.

The new focus topic of the Vitra Schaudepot, which will be on display from May 2022 to May 2024, is wholly devoted to colour. Following an invitation from the Vitra Design Museum, Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis has transformed the Schaudepot in one simple, sweeping gesture by sorting its roughly four hundred exhibits by colour. The installation shows the collection from new perspectives and produces fascinating cross-references between periods and styles, at the same time providing visitors with an overwhelming immersive experience. The presentation is complemented by historical and contemporary objects and documents from the museum archives that illustrate how designers from different eras approached the subject.

As the effects of climate change make themselves felt, cities need to adapt to the global rise of temperatures. The exhibition »Hot Cities« will look at the metropoles of the Arab-speaking world to learn how they and their inhabitants cope with the region’s harsh climate, and whether the architectural and urban design solutions found there might help us make our own environments more climate resilient. »Hot Cities« shows how architects combine traditional vernaculars and modern technologies to respond to the challenges of the future. The exhibition presents urban case studies that provide answers to many questions now raised by climate change.

Gardens reflect identities, dreams, and visions; they are deeply rooted in our culture. Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the garden – not only as a romantic idyll, but as a field of experimentation for concepts related to social justice, climate change, biodiversity, and a sustainable future. Gardens have become places of the avant-garde. Designed by the Italian studio Formafantasma, the exhibition »Garden Futures« at the Vitra Design Museum will be the first to explore the history and future of the modern garden. Which movements and theories have influenced our contemporary garden ideals? How can horticulture contribute to a more sustainable future and a good life for everyone? The exhibition addresses these and similar questions using examples from design, everyday culture, and landscape architecture – from contemporary community gardens to green façades and vertical urban farms, from deckchairs to gardens created by designers and artists like Roberto Burle Marx, Mien Ruys, and Derek Jarman.

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