At the gates of the city of Basel, design and architecture enthusiasts could have a blow to the heart by visiting a kind of “wonderland”, namely the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. Here Vitra has created a concentration of excellent brands such as Tadao Ando, Antonio Citterio, Zaha Hadid, Jean Prouvè, Frank Gehry who have signed the Vitra design Museum. Today to these is also added the duo of archistars Herzog and De Meuron who signed the Vitra Haus.
In 2004 Vitra launched its Home Collection after having focused for years on office and contract furnishing. The Vitra Haus project was born precisely to host the Home collection and summarizes two strong concepts: the archetypal shape of the house and the theme of stacked volumes that characterizes the style of the two Swiss architects.
Visitors are confronted with the surprise of a series of superimposed “houses” each with a facade reminiscent of children’s drawings: floor, side walls, sloping roof. Twelve elongated units completely glazed at the ends and a play of overlaps that even reaches five levels.
From each level you have different views of the surrounding landscape. The complex is used as a showroom for the home collection but it also houses a special exhibition space dedicated to the Vitra seating collection, a cafeteria and the Vitra Design Museum Shop.
