He designed living landscapes and suspended chairs from the ceiling: Danish architect Verner Panton (1926–1998) is one of the twentieth century’s most influential designers. His work – from furniture, fabrics, and lamps to sculptures, buildings, and interiors – radically redefined form, colour, and space. In 2026, Panton would have turned 100. The exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum’s Schaudepot presents a part of his work chronologically and thematically, with chapters dedicated to key creations such as the Panton Chair (c. 1956–1967) and the 1970 Visiona II installation. It also explores Panton’s historical context, from new materials and production techniques to postwar social changes and the Space Age. The Vitra Design Museum maintains one of the most important Verner Panton collections of Verner Panton designs. These holdings serve as a key resource for exhibitions, loans and publications all under approval by the owner of all rights Verner Panton Design AG. The highlight of the exhibition is a walk-in reconstruction of the legendary 1970 Fantasy Landscape.

Image: Verner Panton, »Fantasy Landscape«, installation view of the »Visiona II« exhibition, International Furniture Fair Cologne, 1970 © Verner Panton Design AG

With a career spanning five decades and over 200 projects, Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) counts as one of the most influential 20th-century architects in Asia. His work blends the principles of Modernism with vernacular and traditional elements to form a distinctive architectural language that responds sensitively to context, to local materials cultural identities. Bawa’s remarkable oeuvre shaped the architecture of postcolonial Sri Lanka, and includes hotels, private residences, schools, universities, factories, office buildings, and the country’s parliament. Today, his approach is being rediscovered worldwide as a guiding inspiration for socially and ecologically sustainable building practice.

In 2026, the Vitra Design Museum and M+ Hong Kong in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, will present the first major retrospective on Bawa in two decades. The exhibition foregrounds recurring themes in his work from interdisciplinary collaboration and ecological, social and cultural engagement to the formal qualities that define his architecture. Through an unprecedented wealth of drawings, models, furniture, photographs, and films, it brings to life the captivating, sensory quality of Bawa’s enduring legacy.

An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum and M+ in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust

Image: Geoffrey Bawa at his country house Lunuganga, c. 1996 © Dominic Sansoni