Vitra Design Museum celebrates 25 years

Vitra Design Museum
celebrates 25 years
Open Day
11.05.2014

To mark the 2014 anniversary year, the Vitra Design Museum welcomes you to an Open Day and offers an exclusive look behind the scenes with guided tours, lectures and workshops. Since its founding in 1989, the Museum has been dedicated to the presentation and research of design. With its exhibitions, publications and co-operations with international institutions, it has become one of the world’s leading design museums. The Vitra Design Museum presents the exhibition »Konstantin Grcic – Panorama« while the Vitra Design Museum Gallery shows a walk-in reconstruction of Verner Panton’s legendary interior landscape »Visiona« (1970). We are happy to welcome you!

Guided Tours

Guided Tours

»Konstantin Grcic – Panorama« is the largest exhibition to date of works by Grcic, one of the most influential designers of our time. In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre, the exhibition offers insights into the conceptual world of Grcic – encompassing the topics that occupy the designer’s attention on a daily basis as well as his visions for the future. The guided tour elucidates the concepts underlying the various installations and objects on display.

Highlights of the Vitra Campus: Architectural tour – buildings by Frank Gehry
11:45 am
Meeting point: Vitra Design Museum, max. 30 persons
Tickets: available 30 min. prior to event, InfoPoint Museum
Duration: 30 min.

With his museum building on the Vitra Campus, which opened in 1989, and the factory hall located behind it, the architect Frank Gehry – who had already established a reputation in his home of California – put his signature on his first works of architecture in Europe. This half-hour tour discusses specific aspects of Gehry’s buildings on the Vitra Campus, places them in the context of the famous architect’s oeuvre, and tells the story of the Vitra Design Museum.
 

Highlights of the Vitra Campus: Architectural tour – the production building by SANAA
3:15 pm
Meeting point: Vitra Design Museum, max. 30 persons
Tickets: available 30 min. prior to event, InfoPoint Museum
Duration: 30 min.

The round, shimmering white production hall designed by the Japanese architectural duo SANAA has been part of the Vitra Campus since 2012. In this half-hour tour, participants learn about the architectural design and conceptual development of this structure, whose shape, size and lighting conditions enable innovative approaches to logistics and production.


Highlights of the Vitra Campus: Architectural tour – the conference pavilion by Tadao Ando
2:30 pm
Meeting point: Vitra Design Museum, max. 30 persons
Tickets: available 30 min. prior to event, InfoPoint Museum
Duration: 30 min.

Erected in 1993, the conference pavilion was Tadao Ando’s first project outside of Japan. During the tour, visitors will learn more about the work of this architect, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1995. The tour also provides an opportunity to discover special aspects of his architecture and to personally experience the unique spatial quality of the building.

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes

 

Everyday Visions: The work of the  museum’s directors
3 pm
VitraHaus Lounge (no registration required)
Duration: 45 min.

From 1989 to 2010 the Vitra Design Museum was led by its founding director Alexander von Vegesack. Since 2011 it has been under a new directorship headed by Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner. In their presentation both directors give insight into the strategies and ideas necessary to maintain the position of the Vitra Design Museum among the world’s leading design museums. They will talk about visions as well as the daily routine in a museum.

 

Workshops & Activities