Tag: vitra-design-museum | ArchDaily

Tracing Frank Gehry’s Architectural Legacy Through His Most Influential Works

Reyyan Dogan — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:30:00 +0000

Following the news of Frank Gehry's passing at age 96, renewed attention has been directed toward a career that significantly shaped architectural discourse from the late 20th century onward. Over more than seven decades, Gehry developed a design language defined by material experimentation, iterative model-making, and an interest in fluid, expressive forms. His work ranges from early residential interventions in Southern California to major cultural institutions that have contributed to the identity of cities around the world. Together, these projects outline a trajectory that intersected with shifts in fabrication technologies, museum typologies, and urban redevelopment strategies.

Khudi Bari: Architecture for Climate Displacement

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

In the low-lying deltas of Bangladesh, water defines both life and loss. Every year, millions are forced to rebuild after floods wash away their homes, crops, and livelihoods. In these precarious territories, the act of building has become an act of resilience. It is here that Khudi Bari emerges as a modest yet radical proposal. Designed by Marina Tabassum Architects, the project provides a lightweight, modular, and affordable dwelling for communities displaced by climate change. Recognized as one of the winners of the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, it represents a form of architecture that empowers rather than imposes.

Nieuwe Instituut Hosts "Garden Futures": An Exhibition on Modern Landscape's History and Impact

Maria-Cristina Florian — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:30:00 +0000

The "Garden Futures" exhibition, currently showing at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam until April 13, 2025, explores the multifaceted history and future of the modern garden. Curated by Maria Heinrich and spatially designed by Frank Bruggeman, the exhibition presents the garden not only as a personal refuge, but also as a site reflecting broader political and commercial forces. The show's structure, divided into four thematic chapters, allows for a comprehensive exploration of the garden's evolution and its potential for future development.

Designing the Future of Energy: An Exhibition on Design's Role in the Matter Opens at Vitra Design Museum

Maria-Cristina Florian — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 06:30:00 +0000

The Vitra Design Museum presents 'Transform! Designing the Future of Energy', an exhibition running from March 23rd to September 1st, 2024. As energy stands as the cornerstone of modern society, the subject encompasses political, social, and environmental dimensions. The exhibition aims to highlight design’s role in the effort to transform the energy sector into a more efficient, reliable, and sustainable one, relying more on renewable sources, smart mobility systems, and moving towards self-sufficient cities.

"Iwan Baan: Moments in Architecture": The Vitra Design Museum Presents A Retrospective Exhibition in Germany

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 05:30:00 +0000

From October 21st, 2023, to March 3rd^, 2024, the Vitra Design Museum is hosting a retrospective exhibition featuring the work of Iwan Baan. Known for his world-renowned architecture photography, “Iwan Baan: Moments in Architecture” provides a comprehensive overview of Baan’s extensive portfolio. At its core, it showcases the artist’s ability to capture the essence of contemporary architecture, along with the urban and social contexts associated with it and the people who inhabit these various spaces.

Building History: German Museums Revealing Culture and Place

Eric Baldwin — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 05:30:00 +0000

Museums reveal local and shared heritage. As cultural institutions embedded in the fabric of modern life, each museum serves as a window into history and human exchange. Made to promote understanding and provoke new ideas, these monumental buildings are inspired by spatial exploration. With some of the most influential museum projects in the world, Germany is home to a range of diverse institutions showcasing unique approaches to curating, taxonomy and spatial organization.

A New Building by Kazuo Shinohara will be Added to the Vitra Campus

Dima Stouhi — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 06:30:00 +0000

One of Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara’s iconic architectures, designed under the so-called "First Style" has now been reconstructed on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. The Umbrella House, originally built in Tokyo in 1961, will serve as a venue for small gatherings on the campus, offering visitors insights on modern Japanese architecture. After the geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller/George Howard in 1975, and a petrol station by Jean Prouvé in 1953, the project is the third historic building to be reconstructed on the Vitra Campus.

Vitra Design Museum Explores 200 Years of Chair Design

Eric Baldwin — Mon, 11 May 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Vitra Design Museum has debuted Chair Times, a 90-minute film that describes the history of seating furniture. Focusing on 125 objects from the collection of the Museum, the film explores the development of chairs over centuries, examining them as “portraits of their users.” Arranged according to their year of production, they are organized to form a timeline of modern seating design.

Vitra Design Museum Explores the Work of Balkrishna Doshi

Eric Baldwin — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:00:00 +0000

The Vitra Design Museum has announced a new exhibition exploring the work of Pritzker architect Balkrishna Doshi. Titled Architecture for the People, the museum will present the first international retrospective about Balkrishna Doshi outside of Asia. The goal of the exhibition is to open Doshi’s work to a global audience and show how the architect’s work has redefined modern Indian architecture to shape a new generations of architects.

The Insignificance of Aesthetics: An Exhibition at Vitra Design Museum Adds a Context of Urgency to the Works of Victor Papanek

Alison J. Clarke — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 07:00:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Design Provocateur: Revisiting the Prescient Ideas of Victor Papanek".

Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People

Rene Submissions — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 01:30:00 +0000

With the exhibition »Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People« (30 March to 8 September 2019), Vitra Design Museum presents the first international retrospective about the 2018 Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi (born 1927, Pune, India) outside of Asia.

The renowned architect and urban planner is one of the few pioneers of modern architecture in his home country and the first Indian architect to receive the prestigious award. During over 60 years of practice, Doshi has realized a wide range of projects, adopting principles of modern architecture and adapting them to local culture, traditions, resources, and nature. The exhibition will present numerous significant projects

AD Classics: Vitra Fire Station / Zaha Hadid

Luke Fiederer — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 22:00:00 +0000

This article was originally published on April 21, 2016. To read the stories behind other celebrated architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

Although Zaha Hadid began her remarkable architectural career in the late 1970s, it would not be until the 1990s that her work would lift out her drawings and paintings to be realized in physical form. The Vitra Fire Station, designed for the factory complex of the same name in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany, was the among the first of Hadid’s design projects to be built. The building’s obliquely intersecting concrete planes, which serve to shape and define the street running through the complex, represent the earliest attempt to translate Hadid’s fantastical, powerful conceptual drawings into a functional architectural space.

Gallery: Herzog & de Meuron's Schaudepot at the Vitra Campus Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu

AD Editorial Team — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 07:45:00 +0000

Earlier this summer, the Vitra Schaudepot on the Vitra Campus was officially opened. The latest in a string of structures designed by emerging and well-known architects, this gallery space is the second building by Swiss-practice Herzog & de Meuron. Conceived as "a visible storage facility" presenting a cross-section of the Vitra Design Museum's extensive collection of furniture and lighting, over 400 objects will provide "a comprehensive introduction to the history of furniture design." Featuring a café, shop and a new entrance for visitors to the museum, the building is also able to host temporary exhibitions. Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has turned his lens to this latest addition in Weil am Rhein.

Vitra Design Museum's Manuel Herz On The "Heroic" Modern Architecture Of Africa

Clare Dowdy — Fri, 01 May 2015 10:30:34 +0000

On display until May 31st, the Vitra Design Museum's "Architecture of Independence – African Modernism" exhibition displays a cross-section of Africa's experimental architecture from the post-colonial years of the 1960s. Covering more than 80 projects in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, the exhibition aims to shed light on this little-known period of architecture history, and challenge Western notions of African countries. In this interview, originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Q&A: Curator Manuel Herz on Africa's 'Grandiose' Modern Architecture," Curator Manuel Herz reveals the origins of the exhibition and shares his thoughts light on some of the buildings which the exhibition highlights.

Architecture of Independence - African Modernism

Patricia Arcilla — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

From February 20 the Vitra Design Museum will host "Architecture of Independence - African Modernism," an exhibition curated by architect and author Manuel Herz. Featuring numerous photographic contributions by Iwan Baan, "Architecture of Independence" explores the experimental and futuristic architecture produced in 1960s Central and Sub-Saharan Africa during the region's period of newfound independence.