As part of the 2019 Milan Design Week the Vitra Design Museum hosted the interdisciplinary conference »The Politics of Design« at the Triennale Milano. An international group of high-profile experts discussed design’s changing role and responsibilities in the 21st century.

Catch a glimpse behind the scenes of museum work and find out what lies behind the exhibitions of the Vitra Design Museum in this hour-long tour. Join a curator, restorer or director as they show you their place of work as well as the conservation workshop.

»Since the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart in 1927, there has not been a gathering in a single place of a group of buildings designed by the most distinguished architects in the Western world.« Philip Johnson, architectural critic

Discover the unique collection of the Vitra Design Museum! It contains some 7000 pieces of furniture, a vast assemblage of lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the estates of such designers as Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard.

The Rehberger-Weg, which is around five kilometers long, links two countries, two municipalities, two cultural institutions – and countless stories. The path runs between Weil am Rhein and Riehen, between the Fondation Beyeler and the Vitra Campus. Guided by «24 Stops», 24 waymarkers created by the artist Tobias Rehberger, walkers can explore a uniquely diverse natural and cultural landscape.

NEW: shuttle service between the Vitra Campus and the Fondation Beyeler

Many surrealist artists have created ready-mades and other disturbing objects, unsettling our supposedly familiar world. André Breton and Salvador Dali are examples of these surrealists who took an interest in everyday objects.

The architect Balkrishna Doshi is one of the foremost pioneers of modern architecture in his home country. Jolanthe Kugler, curator at the Vitra Design Museum, talked with the 91-year-old architect about the melding of Indian traditions and Western modernism in his buildings, about his revolutionary social housing concepts and his formative years with Le Corbusier in the 1950s.

»Design Is Never Neutral« was one of the Victor J. Papanek’s (1923 – 1998) most important messages. To find out what this means twenty years after the designer’s death, the Vitra Design Museum sat down with one of the curators of the exhibition »Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design«, Professor Alison J. Clarke, Director of the Victor J. Papanek Foundation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Together with his business partner Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager founded Studio 54 in New York City in 1977, whose roster of illustrious guests secured its reputation as the most famous disco of all time. Head curator Jochen Eisenbrand spoke with Ian Schrager, now a successful hotelier and real estate mogul.

Exhibition curator Jolanthe Kugler and director Mateo Kries spoke with Eames Demetrios, grandson of Charles Eames and director of the Eames Office, to get to the heart of Charles and Ray Eameses' working process.

The American sociologist Richard Sennett has studied the topic of urban living and community for over thirty years. In an interview in the context of the exhibition »Together!« he talks about the perils and possibilities of more open, porous forms of urban planning and communal living.

As part of the research for »Hello, Robot.«, curator Thomas Geisler asked Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne about their take on the relationship between humans and technology.

The architects of the new Schaudepot, Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron, spoke to director Mateo Kries and Rolf Fehlbaum, Chairman Emeritus of Vitra.

The products and installations created by the design studio Raw Edges are characterised by their playful use of colours and patterns. Raw Edges have made a name for themselves through their work for companies such as Kvadrat, Moroso and Louis Vuitton. They also set in scene »Alexander Girard« for the Vitra Design Museum. Shay Alkalay, one of the partners at Raw Edges alongside Yael Mer, spoke to chief curator Jochen Eisenbrand about the actuality of Girard's work.

The Online Collection includes detailed information about selected objects from the collection and will be expanded continuously in the coming years. Here you won’t just find extensive details about each object, but also explanatory text and image materials, biographies of the most important designers as well as texts on the history of significant furniture manufacturers.