Tag: weil-am-rhein | 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.

Doshi Retreat Vitra Campus / Balkrishna Doshi + Khushnu Panthaki Hoof & Sonke Hoof

Miwa Negoro — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 03:00:00 +0000

The Doshi Retreat on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein is a contemplative sanctuary conceived and designed collaboratively by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Balkrishna Doshi, his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof, and her husband Sönke Hoof. Drawing inspiration from Indian spirituality and the meditative qualities of sound and silence, the retreat offers a sensory journey through space, light, and resonance and a place for solitude, reflection, and transformation.

Service Center for Sparkasse Markgräflerland in Weil am Rhein / LRO GmbH & Co. KG Freie Architekten BDA

Paula Pintos — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:00:00 +0000

A small park is laid out eastward along the street and the setback frontage of the neighboring residential buildings. A dilapidated row of houses to the west prevents it from being extended westward. The new office building cannot resolve that urban dilemma, but it can keep the situation open for a future solution. While the ground floor is positioned to align with the residential buildings to maintain the longer-term urban development objective as a viable option, the three upper floors project above the plaza in front, making full use of the maximum allowable volume. As a result, the Sparkasse building has a spacious forecourt that is open to the public. The lobby is oriented towards this 'plaza', from which the building is entered centrally, giving direct access to the events room and the staff café.

"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.

Vitra Oudolf Garden / Piet Oudolf

Hadir Al Koshta — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0000

The planting activity for a new garden by the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf started in May 2020 on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. It will take some patience for the landscaping to reach full bloom, but in just a few months visitors will be able to enjoy initial glimpses of the artfully composed wilderness. The 75-year-old Dutchman is regarded as a pioneer for a generation of garden designers who in the late 1980s began to question conventional practices, finding traditional landscape gardening too decorative, labor-intensive and resource-consuming. Instead, they turned to perennial, often self-regenerating plants, shrubs, grasses, bushes and wildflowers, which had been long ignored as garden plants, and favored an equally unconventional layout of the plantings.

Tane Garden House / Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects

Hana Abdel — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 03:00:00 +0000

It was almost three years ago that Rolf Fehlbaum, Chairman Emeritus of Vitra, took architect Tsuyoshi Tane for a drive around Weil am Rhein, talking about his childhood and his memories of the fields on which the Vitra Campus can be found today. It was at this moment that the idea for a new structure was born: adhering to Tane’s concept of ‘Archaeology of the Future’, which believes that architecture begins from the memory of the place where it stands, the Tane Garden House will be completed in June 2023 and inaugurated during the week of Art Basel.

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.

AD Classics: Vitra Design Museum / Gehry Partners

Luke Fiederer — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 22:00:00 +0000

This article was originally published on April 27, 2017. To read the stories behind other celebrated architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

Even at the Vitra Campus in Weil-am-Rhein—a collection of furniture factories, offices, showrooms, and galleries, many of which are the products of iconic architects—the Vitra Design Museum stands out as exceptional. With its sculptural form composed of interconnected curving volumes, the museum is the unmistakable work of Frank Gehry – an architect who has built a legacy for himself upon such structures. What may not be immediately apparent is the crossroads that this serene white building represents: it was in this project at the southwestern corner of Germany (close to the Swiss border) that Gehry first realized a structure in the vein of his now signature style.

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.

Elytra Filament Pavilion / ICD-ITKE University of Stuttgart

Sabrina Leiva — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 15:00:00 +0000

With the exhibition "Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine", the Vitra Design Museum presents a major exhibition that examines the current boom in robotics. Outside the museum, the »Elytra Filament Pavilion« complements this exhibition. The bionic baldachin is an impressive example of the growing influence of robotics on architecture. Its individual modules were defined by an algorithm and then produced with the help of a robot, realised by a team from the University of Stuttgart. After its premiere at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, it is now on view on the Vitra Campus.

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 + Camper Store at Vitra Campus / Kéré Architecture

Daniel Sánchez — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 04:00:00 +0000

As an addition to the Making Africa exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, Kéré Architecture’s design for a Camper Pop-up store pioneers a new form of retail shopping. By combining the best attributes from in-store and online shopping, the project aims to create a fully-functioning shop with an embedded atmosphere of virtual, sensory, and communal interfaces.

Vitra Campus Adds A Viewing Tower With a Slide

Rory Stott — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Adding to the world-famous collection of buildings and structures at its campus in Weil am Rhein, Vitra has just unveiled its latest project, a viewing tower and slide designed by Carsten Höller. Located on the Alvaro Siza-designed promenade linking Herzog & de Meuron's Vitrahaus with Zaha Hadid's Fire Station, the new tower offers two ways to see the Vitra Campus as never before: from above, looking out over the other buildings at the tower's viewing platform; and on the dizzying descent, as the transparent roof to the slide gives fleeting views of the buildings around you.

Diogene / Renzo Piano

Rory Stott — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Over the years, furniture company Vitra has made a name for itself as one of the most architecturally-enlightened companies in the world, with their renowned campus featuring buildings by Nicholas Grimshaw, Frank Gehry, Alvaro Siza, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron and SANAA.

Factory Building on the Vitra Campus / SANAA

Nico Saieh — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Development of the Vitra Campus

'Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space' Exhibition

Alison Furuto — Sun, 27 May 2012 11:00:40 +0000

Taking place now until September 16, 2012, the Vitra Design Museum is exhibiting “Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space”. The Dutchman Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) was one of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century. Today his work is primarily associated with his two most famous designs, which have become icons of modernism: the Red-Blue Chair (1918/1923) and the Rietveld-Schröder House (1924). But this exhibition shows that Rietveld’s oeuvre contains many more facets that deserve to be rediscovered. This is the first major retrospective on Gerrit Rietveld to be presented to the German-speaking public since 1996. Comprising around 320 objects – including furniture, models, paintings, photographs, films and approximately 100 original drawings and plans – it offers a comprehensive overview of the Dutch designer’s work. For more information on the exhibition, please visit here.

'Album' Exhibition / Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Alison Furuto — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:00:16 +0000

Presented at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the ‘Album’ exhibition by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. The main focus of the exhibition is on their drawings, in addition to archive photographs of models and projects that all come together to offer a panorama of their work, extending from everyday details to a global approach. The exhibition was launched February 3rd and is up until June 3rd. More information after the break.

VitraHaus / Herzog & de Meuron

David Basulto — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Over the years the Vitra Campus has become an architecture museum, featuring works by the most renowned architects: Frank Ghery, Zaha Hadid, Alvaro Siza, Tadao Ando, Jean Pruvé, Nicholas Grimshaw, Buckminster Fuller and SANAA (under construction).