If there’s a single place that proves furniture can be as culturally significant as fine art, it’s the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. For decades, Vitra has been more than a furniture company — it’s been a hub of architectural experimentation and design heritage. At its heart are two must-see institutions: the Vitra Design Museum and the Vitra Schaudepot.
A Pioneer in Design Museums
Opened in 1989, the Vitra Design Museum was designed by none other than Frank Gehry. It was one of the first museums in the world dedicated entirely to industrial furniture design and architecture. Its exhibitions have since spanned everything from Charles and Ray Eames to sustainable design futures, making it a global leader in design culture.
But Vitra didn’t stop there. In 2016, the campus expanded with the Schaudepot, a purpose-built storage and display hall by Herzog & de Meuron. The concept: to take the vast Vitra collection — one of the world’s most important — and make it visible.
Inside the Schaudepot
The Schaudepot houses over 400 key pieces of furniture, tracing design history from the 19th century to today. It’s a chronological walk through innovation:
- Early Bentwood chairs by Thonet
- Modernist icons by Le Corbusier, Gerrit Rietveld, and Alvar Aalto
- Postwar classics from the Eameses, Saarinen, and Panton
- Experimental prototypes, anonymous finds, and even 3D-printed contemporary designs
Downstairs, the Schaudepot Lab digs deeper into materials, techniques, and the future of design. It’s part archive, part laboratory, showing how ideas evolve from sketch to finished form.
Beyond Furniture
What makes the Vitra Campus unique is its broader architectural context. Alongside Gehry and Herzog & de Meuron, buildings by Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Nicholas Grimshaw, and SANAA turn the site into a kind of open-air design anthology. Visiting feels like stepping inside a catalogue of architectural and design history — only here, you can touch it, sit on it, and walk through it.
Why It Matters
The Vitra collection isn’t just about objects; it’s about ideas. From mass production and ergonomics to aesthetics and sustainability, every piece reflects the shifting relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. Far from being a static archive, the Schaudepot is a living showcase — a reminder that design is as much about the future as the past.
Practical Information
📍 Address: Charles-Eames-Str. 2, 79576 Weil am Rhein, Germany
🎟 Admission: Tickets required (check design-museum.de for current prices)
🕘 Opening hours: Open daily, 10am – 6pm
🚇 Nearest station: Weil am Rhein (with connections from Basel, Switzerland)
My World of Interiors 