Transform! Designing the Future of Energy

GUIDED TOURS

Guided tour in German
»Transform! Designing the Future of Energy«:
From 29 March 2024
Friday, 3pm
Saturday, Sunday and on public holidays, 12pm
Vitra Design Museum

The buildings, infrastructures, and devices for generating, distributing, and using energy are products of human creativity. The exhibition explores the ongoing energy transition from a design perspective: from devices for harvesting renewable energy to solar buildings and wind turbines. Join our guided tour and discover how design can assist us in switching to renewable energies and reducing our energy consumption!

The tour will be held in german.

Transform! Designing the Future of Energy
WEDNESDAY MATINEE (DE) | 17 July 2024
10 am, Vitra Design Museum

Buildings, infrastructures, and devices for generating, distributing, and using energy are the products of human design creativity. This dialogue tour explores the ongoing energy transition from a design perspective: from everyday devices based on renewable energies to solar buildings and wind farms. Join us and discover how design can assist us in switching to renewable energies and reducing our energy consumption!

The tour will be held in german.

€ 10 per person, no registration required

WORKSHOPS

Sustainable Spatial Practices: TAKK Barcelona (EN)
Saturday | 27 April 2024  
11.00 am, Vitra Schaudepot 

TAKK is an architecture and design studio based in Barcelona. Its founders, Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño, explore how architecture can promote more democratic living by incorporating feminist thinking, ecology, and politics into spatial practices. This workshop will address the diminishing supply of fossil fuels and its impact on architecture. Together with the architects, you will learn how contemporary building practice needs to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels and pay more attention to the thermal contribution of the human body, space distribution, and specific thermal needs. The workshop equips participants with tools for designing architectures for a world without fossil resources and shows innovative solutions for more sustainable buildings.

€ 135 per person
€ 75 per per person in training (studies, internship, apprenticeship)

Registration: www.design-museum.reservix.de

If you would like to learn more about TAKK's concepts, please join us for the architects’ Talk in the Depot Deli on Friday, 26 April 2024.

New Food Futures: Mayar El Bakry (DE)
Saturday | 31 August 2024
12.30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The exhibition »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy« addresses energy as one of the driving forces of our society. Mobility, heating and air-conditioning, the making of goods and wares – it all needs energy! Join our tour of the exhibition followed by a session with chef and research designer Mayar El Bakry for a hands-on, in-depth examination of sustainable food. We will discuss the sourcing of food, the use of seasonal produce, the concept of zero-waste cuisine, and other related issues while preparing a delicious meal together.

The sourcing of food, the use of seasonal produce, the concept of zero-waste cuisine, and other related issues will be discussed while a delicious meal is prepared.

€ 75 per person, please register at www.design-museum.reservix.de

Still hungry? Round off the day at the Depot Deli with a sustainable dinner created by Mayar El Bakry.

TALKS

Sustainable Spatial Practices: TAKK Barcelona
TALK (EN) | 26 April 2024
6.30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The members of the Spanish architecture and design studio TAKK rethink our living spaces under the aspects of neighbourhood and the needs of a pluralistic urban society. They develop private as well as public projects. The studio’s clients include museums like the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, the municipality of Barcelona, the design platform Foment de les Arts i el Disseny, the French company Hermès, and Camp Design Milan. In their talk, the studio’s founders, Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño, explain how sustainable building reconciles with affordable housing.

Free admission; please register at events@design-museum.de

Click here for the TAKK Workshop on 27 April!

Energyscapes: Christine von Raven, Carola Hein & Philipp Misselwitz
TALK (DE) | 27 June 2024
6.30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Energyscapes emerge where energy is part of our urban, rural, and natural landscapes. Beyond visible energy infrastructures like power stations, wind farms, or solar panels, the term also refers to the invisible energy flows passing through buildings and includes distribution networks as well as renewable energy sources. Our special guests this evening are three leading architecture and energy experts who will share and discuss their different perspectives: Professor Carola Hein is head of History of Architecture and Urban Planning at Delft University of Technology, full professor at Leiden University, and holder of the UNESCO Chair for Water, Ports, and Historic Cities; climate engineer and integral planner Christine von Raven develops and implements resilient urban planning projects; and Professor Philipp Misselwitz is an architect and urban researcher with a focus on the effects of socio-ecological crises on architecture and urban planning who develops new, systemic approaches for climate-positive and circular building.

Free admission; please register at events@design-museum.de

SPECIALS

Transform! Design and the Future of Energy
OPENING (EN) | 22 March 2024
6 pm, Fire Station
7 pm, Vitra Design Museum

The exhibition »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy« explores the ongoing energy transition from a design perspective: from devices for harvesting renewable energy to solar buildings and wind turbines, from smart mobility to self-sufficient cities. On the occasion of the opening, we are delighted to welcome Marjan van Aubel, James Auger and Arno Schlüter to the Opening Talk. Solar designer Marjan van Aubel develops groundbreaking products to make solar technology suitable for everyday use. James Auger, co-founder of Reconstrained Design, experiments with low-tech energy. Arno Schlueter researches on systemic approaches for integrating questions of energy, emissions and human comfort for the design, production and operation of buildings. In conversation with Jochen Eisenbrand, curator of the exhibition, the guests talk about their vision of a world that can manage without fossil fuels.

The talk will be held in English.

Free admission, RSVP until 15 March 2024: events@design-museum.de

The Heliotrope House: Home and Power Plant
EXCURSION (DE)| 1 June 2024
2 pm, Heliotrop, Freiburg (DE)

Designed by Freiburg-based architect Rolf Disch, the Heliotrope House rotates with the sun and its solar panels produce five times as much energy as its inhabitants need. In winter, it turns towards the sun to let in light and warmth, while in summer, it rotates to provide shade and coolness. Join Büro Disch’s Tobias Bube on a tour of the building and discover an architecture based on innovative and sustainable principles!

Free admission, limited numbers; please register at events@design-museum.de

Sustainable Building in Basel: Office for Environment and Energy
EXCURSION (DE) | 22 June 2024
2 pm, Basel

The new building for the Office for Environment and Energy (AUE) in Canton Basel-Stadt is a milestone of sustainable architecture and engineering. Developed for a densely urban inner city location, the design by jessenvollenweider architects has a fully solar façade to cover the building’s electric energy needs, which an intelligent interior design reduces to a minimum. Heating energy is drawn from Basel’s district heating system. Join studio architect Sven Kowalewsky on a guided tour and discover the building’s unique architectural features!

Free admission, limited numbers; please register at events@design-museum.de 

New Food Futures: Mayar El Bakry
TOUR & DINNER (DE) | 31 August 2024
6 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Inspired by the exhibition »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy«, chef and research designer Mayar El Bakry creates a culinary masterpiece based on a sustainable approach to preparing and producing food. El Bakry introduces recipes and methods that focus on seasonal and regional supplies and follow the zero-waste principle. The evening begins with a guided tour of the exhibition, followed by dinner in the Depot Deli.

If you would like to learn more about Mayar El Bakry’s sustainable cuisine, join the »New Food Futures« workshop, also on 31 August, for an hands-on experience and food for thought!

€ 75 per person

Please register at www.design-museum.de/dinner

FAMILY DAYS

Family Day: Sunlight to Energy
WORKSHOP (DE) | 7 April, 7 July 2024   
11 am­­­–2 pm and 2–5 pm 
Vitra Design Museum

How can design help us transform the energy system? Explore the exhibition »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy« and discover design solutions ranging from everyday devices based on renewable energies to smart mobility concepts. Following the guided tour, you will get the chance to try your hand at creating a solar vehicle of your own while learning what solar technology can really do. To keep your strength up, get your refreshments and vegetarian power food at the Airstream kiosk!

Workshop, guided tour & admission: € 35 per person (€ 25 concessions); please register here. Attendees must be 10+.
No reservations required for lunch.