Objects with Love
—
Ten Years of VitraHaus
Till Weber, Creative Director VitraHaus, and the freelance interior stylist Connie Hüsser, Co-Creative Director VitraHaus, were responsible for the concept and redesign of the VitraHaus.
Ten Years of VitraHaus
Originally conceived as a showroom for the Vitra Home Collection, the VitraHaus exemplifies the diversity of the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. The striking building designed by Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron is simultaneously on experimental laboratory and flagship store for the Swiss furniture manufacturer. The VitraHaus has been visited to date by 3.5 million people from all over the world. On the occasion of the building’s tenth anniversary, Vitra is encapsulating the accumulated experiences and insights of the last decade in a new interior.
In 2006 the architects Herzog & de Meuron were commissioned to design a space for the Home Collection, which had been launched two years earlier. The concept of the building plays with archetypal proportions and dimensions to create living scenarios and work settings with a home-like feel. Since its opening in 2010, the VitraHaus has welcomed more than 3.5 million visitors.
“The VitraHaus is a unique building that has been a focus of our attention for ten years now. During this time we have learned a lot about the building and about interiors in general: What does the building want? What best suits it? What are the formulas for creating a good space? What is missing in our collection that would make interiors even more effective or appealing? The newly designed VitraHaus interior reflects our answers to these questions”, notes Nora Fehlbaum, CEO of Vitra.
Fictional inhabitants and characters
Over the past years, well-known interior designers such as IIse Crawford, India Mahdavi and Raw Edges have developed interiors for fictional residents in the VitraHaus loft on the top floor. To mark the building’s ten-year anniversary, the US design studio Charlap Hyman & Herrero has now transformed the loft into the apartment of a film director. But other parts of the VitraHaus also showcase living areas furnished in different ways, inspired by the lives of imaginary occupants. A visit to the VitraHaus should encourage visitors to think about and experiment with their own home interiors, while also demonstrating Vitra’s conviction that designing living spaces is always a deeply personal process.
Consultation and inspiration
The interior design competence acquired by Vitra over the past ten years has been given abundant space in the VitraHaus. The new Interior Studio is conceived as a workshop to facilitate the creative process, where VitraHaus visitors can take advantage of pre-booked or spontaneous appointments for a comprehensive approach to the design of their interiors. In addition to Vitra products, the concept also integrates third-party products from other partners, such as accessories, rugs and wall paints.