tadao ando at the vitra design museum

The Vitra Campus also include a conference center designed by Tadao Ando in 1993. The long, linear extended walls suggest Mies van der Rohe while the concrete evokes Brutalism.This was Ando's first building outside of Japan.

 

 

 

the oudolf garden at the vitra design museum

The Vitra Design Museum hosts a rather fabulous garden of the most radiant selection of flowers and greenery. The Oudolf Garden, designed by Piet Oudolf in 2020, includes numerous meadow perennials that spectacularly grace the grounds and support various pollinators.

renzo piana at the vitra design museum

The smallest architectural gem at the Vitra Design Museum is the Diogene. Designed and built by Renzo Piano between 2011 and 2013. the Diogene is named after the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope ("Diogene di Sinope" in Italian). Diogenes is one of the founders of Cynicism (a root philosophy of Stoicism) who famously lived in a pithos, a large ceramic jar, while roaming the streets criticizing the excesses of Athens.

Piano is best known for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC (among others). Like many a starchitect, he has spent some time considering living efficiency with a focus on the smallest space for human habitation.

The Diogene sports a luxurious 7.5 square-meter (81 square-feet) wholly-contained, off-grid living unit meant for remote contemplation (presumably of the excesses of Athens and other metropolitan areas). The microcabin has solar cells for power, rainwater harvesting for water supply, and solar water heating. Interestingly, the building collects rainwater from gutters at the bottom of the building.

The exterior, clad in riveted aluminum, looks like something Elon Musk would sprinkle Mars with, but the interior is pleasantly warmed with wood and actually looks quite lovely. The windows are triple glazed for efficiency. Presumably the space is warmed with the "boiler" on the roof, transferring solar heat collected from the day to the interior at night. The interior includes a living space, a kitchen, a shower, and a composting toilet. The innards were not open for viewing during our visit (the photos below are from Vitra and Piano). 

The Diogene is a nifty little cabin, although I suspect its namesake, Diogenes, would rebel at its excesses compared to his clay pot.

 

(another) herzog & de meuron at the vitra design museum

Designed and built between 2013 and 2016, Herzog & de Meuron envisioned an addition to an existing building to complement the older structure while speaking its own language. The architects borrowed the material (bricks) and some of the form creating a minimalist and introverted facade to house a bright and cheery display of chairs. H&M also played with texture by breaking the bricks in half, longwise, and facing walls with the roughage. We missed it, but there's a clever outreach of the new into the old one of the transitions. This building is next to Zaha Hadid's fire station, so it's nice that H&M did not see the need to 'equal' the exuberance of Hadid's piece.

photo from Herzog and de Meuron's webpage

metal chair by Gerritt Reitveld

zaha hadid at the vitra design museum

Zaha Hadid's first realized project was a fire station (1991-1993) at the Vitra Design Museum commissioned by Rolf Fehlbaum after a lightning strike burned down part of Vitra's factory complex. The design is neo-Brutalist in its use of concrete and glass but also Deconstructivist in its use of random planes colliding at a central focal point. The building is a exhuberant explosion of concrete and glass, perhaps commemorating the lightening strike that burned the factory. Unlike her later use of organic curves, this building is hard surfaces and angles, brilliantly balanced and thoughtful.