Vitra Design Museum Research

The Vitra Furniture Museum and Factory was built between 1987-1989 in Weil am Rhein in Germany. The overall design comprises of three different parts; the furniture assembly plant, the museum to house furniture collection, and the master plan of the site. What we are focusing on is the small museum. The museum includes a library, office, storage/support and exhibition space. The construction is smooth white plaster over masonary on vertical and inverted surfaces and titanium- zinc roofing panels on sloped water shielding surfaces. It is distorted but pristine painted concrete cubes. The forms appear as though they were brought together collision.
The clients asked from Gehry a unified plan for a factory and museum which departed from disparate layering of geometries and informal materials common to Gehry's southern sculptural buildings. This is proved by the use of the curve in Vitra which breaks up the angularity of Gehry's previous structures. The baroque areas and gentle spirals simply collective movement responding to the dynamic nature of the manufacturing center.
The sloping plaster and stucco forms resemble that of Le Corbusier Notre-Dame-du-Haut (seen below) which is in nearby Ronchamp, France. The Zinc rooftops blend in with Nicholas Grimshaw's already present factory on site which features aluminum cladding.
Inside the spaces are connected volumes that spatially overlap through-out the entire building. Even though these spaces are interconnected each separate space has its own character according to the light, volume, surface and scale.




Frank Gehry: The Complete Works. Francesco Dal Co. Monacelli Press Inc. 1998. pg. 362-367

Frank Gehry, Architect. J. Fiona Ragheb Editor. Kara Vander Weg. Guggenheim Museum Publication, New York, 2001. pg. 110-117.


International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture 1- Architects. Ed. Randall J. Van Vynckt. St. James Press, Detroit. 1993. pg. 302-203.