Vitra Museum – Weil am Rhein

Last Sunday we visited the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. Vitra is a furniture manufacturer and the campus with the production facilities was redesigned after a major fire and is now an outstanding ensemble of contemporary architecture

From Switzerland, the campus can be reached by bus no. 55 from Claraplatz (in Kleinbasel). If you arrive with the SBB and get off at the main station, it is best to take tram no. 8 to Claraplatz. At Claraplatz you can buy a connecting ticket to Weil am Rhein. What amused us a bit, everywhere it says that you shouldn’t buy the tickets on the bus, but in the end everyone has to get on at the front and 90% of the passengers buy their tickets there. As a result, the buses are quite late and you should be patient.

When you arrive, the first thing you notice is the “nested” Vitra House, which was built by Herzog & de Meuron (see cover photo). It houses the Vitra Home Collection and the cafeteria. You can be wonderfully inspired by the many great furniture and presentations on a tour and then enjoy the delicious food (recommendation: Black Forest cake) in the cafeteria.

The Vitra Campus is also home to the Vitra Design Museum, which is one of the world’s leading design museums and has two temporary exhibitions a year on the topics of art, architecture and everyday culture. In the main building, which was built by Frank Gehry, an exhibition of the works of Gerrit Rietveld is currently taking place.

We were not primarily interested in the exhibition, but in the architectural tours. For about 15 euros you can visit the exhibition and take part in a 2-hour architecture tour, where you can also visit the buildings on the cordoned-off campus grounds. I recommend the tour to anyone interested in architecture. There are guided tours in both German and English. A very special building that you get to see is the fire station, which was built by Zaha Hadid. This building is definitely not functional at all, but has a great shape and an exciting interior. Unfortunately, these photos may not be published.

The guided tour then takes you past the balancing elements of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. But what impressed me the most was the conference pavilion by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. It radiates an extreme tranquility and is wonderfully embedded in the truly idyllic surroundings.

There are also many small design pieces on the site, such as Jasper Morrison’s bus stop and miniature buildings, such as Jean Prouvé’s petrol station. In addition, you can also admire very recent works that were created as part of a collaboration with architects at Art Basel. The result is, among other things, this exciting bench creation.