VITRAHAUS BY HERZOG & DE MEURON

In January 2004, Vitra launched its home collection, which includes design classics as well as re-editions and products by contemporary designers. It was created in order to target individual customers with an interest in design. As there was no interior space available for the presentation of the home collection on the Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, between the border of Switzerland and Germany, the company commissioned the Basel-based architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2006 to design the 'Vitrahaus'. It has been 16 years since the last building - the Vitra Design Museum - by architect Frank Gehry was built on the Vitra campus. now, on time and on budget, the 'Vitrahaus' has opened, becoming the newest addition to the site. The concept of the 'Vitrahaus' connects two themes which are occurring in the architectural practice of Herzog & de Meuron: the theme of the archetypal house and that of stacked volumes. The five-storey structure is comprised of 12 'houses' - five houses are set at the base in which seven other houses are stacked upon one another. Each of the structural volumes appear as if they have been shaped by an extrusion press and are cantilevered up to 15 metres in some places. The floor slabs intersect the underlying gables, resulting in a three-dimensional assemblage or 'pile of houses'.