Architect Frank Gehry designed The Vitra Design Museum which is located in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany and was completed in 1989. The style of this design was classified as expressionist modern.
The design museum houses temporary exhibitions on themes of furniture design, and the building makes a suitable host for them in keeping with the theme.
The geometry of the building does not feel contrived or particularly noticeable as you go around the exhibitions. From the outside it does feel both those things but it is at home among the other architectural showpieces that make up the Vitra site.
Gehry also built a more functional-looking production hall and a gatehouse for the close-by Vitra factory. Although Gehry used his trademark sculptural deconstructivist style for the museum building, he did not opt for his usual mix of materials, but limited himself to white plaster and a titanium-zinc alloy.
For the first time, he allowed curved forms to break up his more usual angular shapes. The sloping white forms appear to echo the Notre Dame du Haut chapel by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp, France, not far from Weil.
Following a major fire in 1981, the company Vitra has pursued a conscious approach to its own architecture, starting with the commission awarded to the English architect Nicholas Grimshaw to build a new factory hall. His high-tech architecture was seen as upholding the vision of Vitra as an enterprise synonymous with technical excellence
After completion of the first structure, he was assigned the task of developing a master plan for the Vitra grounds. This idea of "corporate identity architecture" was called into question, however, by the 1984 erection of the sculpture "Balancing Tools" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It served as the trigger for an entirely new architectural concept: deliberately contrasting works of architecture were to confront one another and imbue the site with vitality and a distinctive identity. In keeping with this idea, Vitra commissioned a different architect for each building project. Such as Frank O. Gehry, for example, who designed the expressive main building of the Vitra Design Museum with its towers, ramps and cubes that was dedicated on 3 November 1989.
Vitra Design Museum is pleased to be able to offer guided architectural tours of the buildings by Gehry, Citterio, Grimshaw, Ando, Hadid and Siza on the Vitra grounds.
The Vitra Design Museum shows an exhibition of 100 select artefacts from its collection. It comprises items spanning the period from 1820 to the present day, including tables and desks, chairs and easy chairs, loungers and stools, landscaped interiors and storage units. These are subdivided into the six categories: TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTION, DECOR, PROGRAMME, REDUCTION AND ORGANIC, thus highlighting recurring characteristics of the design evolution process.
Illustrating the development of industrial furniture manufacture often calls for a certain configuration of so-called "guideline objects". However, besides furniture which is superior as regards finish, state of repair or dissemination, the exhibition concept promises documentary appeal, with original drawings and sketches, patent specifications, aural and visual material plus the first sales and exhibition catalogues which have seldom or never been displayed.
An easy-to-follow cross-reference system brings out the many inter-relationships between the exhibits, leading the visitor through the display. The way in which the items are shown stimulates discussion and possibly even a revision of existing standpoint.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitra_Design_Museum
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/vitradesign/index.htm
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Vitra_Design_Museum.html
http://www.design-museum.de/vitra/architektur/index.php?sid=bea891fe0d95977c5c00a84e26dc3279&language=en
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