Charles and Ray Eames are counted among the most important designers of the 20th century. With their furniture, films, books, exhibitions and media installations, they have influenced generations of designers and continue to shape our everyday culture.
This year he would have celebrated his 100th birthday: the Austro-Italian designer Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007), one of the most influential and unconventional figures in twentieth-century design. He gained renown with his designs for the office equipment manufacturer Olivetti, for his poetic, minimalist sculptural objects, and as the leading figure of the Memphis design collective in the 1980s.
Housing is scarce – that much has become evident in the last few years. As real estate prices in big cities continue to skyrocket, conventional ideas of housing development prove unable to meet demands. The reaction to these challenges has been a silent revolution in contemporary architecture – towards collective building and living.
Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran and Tangier are vibrant metropolises of the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). They pulsate with an innovative cultural life – despite the political headlines. The exhibition »Mudun مدن Urban Cultures in Transit« views these cities from a micro-perspective, examining their architecture, urban neighbourhoods and the protagonists who shape them.
It is the most widely used piece of furniture in the world: the white plastic chair. As the quintessential example of a mass consumer product, the Monobloc chair can be found wherever there is a need for cheap seating – be it in European gardens, African cafés or Asian restaurants.
Following their exhibition »Album« in 2012, internationally renowned designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec return to the Vitra Campus in October 2016. The exhibition »Rêveries Urbaines« at the Zaha Hadid Fire Station presents concepts for urban development, and is a wide-ranging study of possible development solutions for cities that may be imagined in very different urban settings.
Dieter Rams (born 1932) is one of the most influential German designers of the past decades. His designs for the Braun company are legendary, and his design principles are more relevant today than ever. From 18 November 2016 to 12 March 2017, the Vitra Design Museum is presenting an exhibition of Rams’ work in the newly opened Vitra Schaudepot.
The first Schaudepot temporary exhibition is dedicated to Radical Design, a design Movement that reached its peak at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s in Italy and is one of the most important avant-garde movements in the history of design.
Weil am Rhein
Konstantin Grcic is one of the most influential designers of our time. Serious and functional, unwieldy and occasionally disconcerting, his works combine an indus- trial aesthetic with experimental, artistic elements.
Bern
Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991) was one of the most influential Japanese designers of the 20th century. His unique approach married the traditional Japanese design aesthetic with Western design princi- ples of Postmodernism.
Mud huts, timber dwellings, stone houses – architectural structures around the world have evolved to be perfectly adapted to the surrounding environment, climate and available building materials. With the growing awareness of sustainable construction and regional traditions, these building types have been rediscovered as vital sources of inspiration.
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