Back in March 2011 we bemoaned the position of the fence surrounding the Vitra production facility in Weil am Rhein, and for all the disruption to the view across the Vitra Campus.

Before the construction of the VitraHaus the fence offended no one, but since….

“Mr Fehlbaum, tear down this wall! Or at least move it a little bit. Please.”, we cried. Paraphrasing the lonesome cowboy.

And much like Mikhail Gorbachev needed two and half years to respond to Ronald Reagan, so too will it take some 30 months before our challenge has been answered in the positive.

However by November 2013 visitors to the VitraHaus and Vitra Design Museum will be able to move much freer and more independently around the Vitra Campus.

A wonderful, wonderful development.

Or almost. For unlike the fall of the Berlin Wall the fall of the Vitra Fence is only a partial fall.

In the coming months the progression of the fence will be altered from its current course on the edge of the car park and instead will make a sharp left at the Buckminster Fuller Dome and then lead on to Alvaro Siza’s production hall.

To complement the new fence Alvaro Siza has devised a new path that follows the line of the fence before taking visitors beyond his production hall and on to Zaha Hadid’s Fire Station.

The redesign is then completed by a new “meadow” in front of the VitraHaus with seating. And more cherry trees.

The architecture remains however behind the fence and so the view of the Buckminster Fuller Dome, Jean Prouvé petrol station et all remains through the fence.

That said, visitors will not only have the opportunity to view the works from differing perspectives but also the extra public space around the VitraHaus should have the positive effect of making the whole areal appear less claustrophobic and crammed than is currently the case.

We still see no reason not to place the fence next to the road, so between the Frank Gehry production hall and Jean Prouvé petrol station, thus making all objects freely accessible.

Yes that may mean that fewer visitors pay for the architecture tour, but we believe the majority would still choose to view the objects in the company of a guide. They are after all there to learn and experience.

And so excellent and welcome as the start is, we do have David Hasselhoff waiting in the wings … and he really, really likes the idea of appearing at the “Campus Summernights” concert season!

The Vitra Campus, featuring the new fence position and new path.

On Friday February 23rd the Vitra Design Museum open their 2013 spring/summer exhibition, Louis Kahn – The Power of Architecture.

Organised in conjunction with the Netherlands Architecture Institute “The Power of Architecture” is the first major Louis Khan retrospective in over two decades and promises to present the most comprehensive study ever of one of modernism’s more interesting and alluring sons.

Albeit a son of modernism we suspect many of you will never have heard of.

Louis Kahn, ca. 1972 (Photo © Robert C. Lautman Photography Collection, National Building Museum)

Born in Estonia in 1901, Louis Kahn was raised in Philadelphia. As the son of poor Jewish immigrants Kahn’s early years are probably best described as “modest”; however, he was a gifted and diligent student and in 1920 won a scholarship to study architecture at the University of Philadelphia’s School of Fine Arts. Following his graduation he embarked on a two year long “Grand Tour” of Europe; a tour that was to introduce him to both the emerging modernist movement as well as the wonders of historic European architectural traditions. Returning to America in 1930 Kahn struggled to find architectural work and turned to teaching and researching, first at Yale University and then the University of Pennsylvania, before in 1951 he was able to realise his first major project, a critically acclaimed extension at Yale University Art Gallery. It was to be a further decade before he could realise his first project outside the US, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, a commission quickly followed by arguably his most important work: the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 1974 Louis Kahn died of a heart attack in New York.

Although Louis Kahn could in many ways be considered a victim of the US depression of the 1930s – an era that saw him largely unemployed or at best underemployed – the time spent teaching and researching was to lay the foundations for his belated fame as it allowed him to fully develop his ideas on firstly architecture’s social responsibility and secondly on the relationship between architecture and the natural world, both in terms of structural similarities and the connection between the inanimate building and the living environment.

And perhaps more importantly it allowed Kahn the freedom to combine the two in a vernacular modernism that confuses as much as it delights: the outwardly brutalist nature of many of Kahn’s structure belying a much more classical approach to architecture that is often only apparent on the second, or third, look. His National Assembly Building in Dhaka for example looks like it wants to punch you hard between the eyes. Only when stop cowering do you realise it is nothing more menacing than a series of arches and columns.

Like some sort of abstract Gothic-Modern cathedral.

And indeed Kahn’s portfolio is awash with structures and forms inspired by the Medieval, Gothic and Classical structures he witnessed on his numerous tours of Europe. Louis Kahn was fascinated by the monumental, be it medieval cities, classical bridges or religious house of all hues and whenever he visited Europe he would return with sketches and watercolours of those structures, or bits of structures, that spoke to him.

And when they spoke to him, it wasn’t just in terms of their physical appearance.

In 1944 Kahn wrote, “No architect can rebuild a cathedral of another epoch embodying the desires, the aspirations, the love and hate of the people whose heritage it became. Therefore the images we have before us of monumental structures of the past cannot live again with the same intensity and meaning. Their faithful duplication is unreconcilable. But we dare not discard the lessons these buildings teach for they have the common characteristic of greatness upon which the buildings of our future must, in one sense or another, rely”¹

One of the lessons these buildings teach is that vertical, supporting structures needn’t be constructed from solid stone, they can be hollow. Louis Kahn was to develop this lesson into one of his most important contributions to architectural theory; his distinction between “served” and “servant” spaces. For Louis Kahn “served” spaces are those spaces in a building that are actively used, “servant” spaces being those spaces that serve the utilised – principally staircases but also ventilation systems, liftshafts etc. Which may sound stunningly obvious, but until one starts to actively distinguish between the two and plan a building on the basis of such an active distinction one can’t develop, for example, a truly modular system such as Fritz Haller‘s Mini/MidiMaxi. And before Louis Kahn, no one did actively define such a distinction.

National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh by Louis Kahn 1962–83 (Photo © Raymond Meier)

Louis Kahn’s relatively late entry into the higher echelons of practicing architects and the relatively limited number of projects he completed mean that while Kahn is widely acknowledged and respected in architecture circles; his name means next to nothing to most people.

Louis Kahn – The Power of Architecture is a wonderful opportunity to help rectify that.

Divided into seven sections the exhibition begins with a biographical introduction to the man and his work, before six themed sections explore his relationship with Philadelphia, his scientific research in the field of natural structures, the role of nature and classicism in his architecture and architectural thinking as well as the social and communal aspects of his structures.

We haven’t seen the exhibition and so, as ever, can’t comment on how well it achieves its aim of presenting a new perspective on Louis Kahn, his work and his contribution to architecture. We can however say that the exhibition premiered at the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam and we’ve only read good things about it there. We expect the Vitra Design Museum have tweaked it a bit; we still expect only to read good things about it.

Louis Kahn – The Power of Architecture runs at the Vitra Design Museum, Charles Eames Str. 2, Weil am Rhein from February 23rd until August 11th 2013.

In addition to the exhibition itself the Vitra Design Museum is staging an extensive accompanying programme.

Full details can be found at www.design-museum.de

1 “L. I. Kahn “Monumentality” in New Architecture and City Planning, ed. P Zucker (New York 1944)”, quoted in Eugene J. Johnson, “A Drawing of the Cathedral of Albi by Louis I. Kahn”, Gesta Vol. 25, No. 1, 1986

A watercolour by Louis Kahn of Ponte Vecchio, Florence. painted ca. 1930 (© Private Collection, photo: Paul Takeuchi 2012)

The Jewish Community Center, Ewing Township, New Jersey by Louis Kahn 1954–59 (© Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, photo: John Ebstel)

Steven and Toby Korman House, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania by Louis Kahn 1971–73 (© Barry Halkin)

Vitra Design Museum: Louis Kahn - The Power of Architecture. National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The MoMa in New York famously houses some of the most famous works of Pop Art. And just as famously some of the most famous pieces of mid-20th century design. They are only separated by one floor; however, the layout and curation are very much of the infamous “ne’er the twain shall meet” style.

And given the size and configuration of the MoMa it is inconceivable that any normal visitor would be able to consider what they are currently viewing on one floor in the context of what was viewed half a lifetime ago on another floor.

As such those visitors who do visit both floors view them, and understand them, as two separate entities. Two unconnected worlds. Here George Nelson, Charles & Ray Eames, Eero Aarnio. There Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein.

The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein understand things differently and until February 2013 are presenting “Pop Art Design”, not only the first exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum to feature works of art as a central focus, but also one of the first major attempts anywhere to investigate how art and design in the “Pop Art Era” interacted with and reacted to one another.

Co-existed, as it were.

Vitra Design Museum: Pop Art Design

Featuring some 140 works of art and design from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Pop Art Design presents a comprehensive overview of the major players, themes and achievements of the period; with the art explored in the context of the design and the design explored in the context of the art.

As far as we understand the exhibition concept there is no attempt in Pop Art Design to form direct links between the artists and designers of the period, to imply that one protagonist directly took on the work(s) or idea(s) of another for their own creations; rather, it is much more about examining how both groups reacted to the age and the prevailing political, social and technological conditions. But for all the nature of the dialogue that existed between art and design.

In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue Vitra Design Museum Chef Curator Mateo Kries describes this dialogue as being a “central characteristic” of Pop Art.

If we’re honest we’ve never considered the situation in such terms.

Having viewed the exhibition we now understand the nature of this dialogue a lot better. And the exhibition concept is such that we believe all visitors will leave with a similarly extended horizon.

Pop Art Design at Vitra Design Museum

The artists of the post-war era had the rise of the global celebrity and the fledgling advertising industry to play with; the designers had modern materials and the pioneer spirit of a new consumer generation buoyed by the increased financial stability and security of the age. All had the post-war political and social realities.

And so, in effect, both groups reveled in the creative freedom afforded by the prevailing situation(s) and the increasingly global nature of society to reflect upon and respond to what was happening around them.

The results are surprisingly similar; not just in terms of form or tone, but also in their long-term influence.

One of the best examples of this can be seen before you even enter the exhibition. In front of the Vitra Design Museum stands an installation featuring the 1967 “Blow Inflatable Armchair” by Paolo Lomazzi, Donato D’Urbino and Jonathan De Pas juxtapositioned with an abridged version of Andy Warhol’s 1966 work “Silver Clouds”

Inflated, volumeless objects as a medium to challange convention and force debate. One unmistakably art. One unmistakably design. Both unmistakably from the same gene pool.

“Inflated, volumeless objects” in contemporary art and design? Did anyone say Jeff Koons? Oskar Zieta? Philippe Starck? And where are we to place Asif Khan’s “Clouds” from Design Miami Basel 2011? Architecture?

Pop Art Design also deftly illustrates that the influence of Pop Art can be felt today in more indirect ways. Standing before pieces by, for example, Ettore Sottsass one is made all too aware of the link between Pop Art and Postmodern Design; the later in effect taking the whole demystifying, debunking and democratising as preached by the Pop Artists a step further. And with a lot more vigour and purpose.

As Pop Art Design makes very clear, this progression was greatly assisted by the dialogue that was taking place during the Pop Art years and the blurring of the lines between what is art and what is design as designers started using ever more artistic techniques and artists turned to, previously, exclusively design processes.

Pop Art Design at Vitra Design Museum

The one aspect of the exhibition that really surprised us was the number of works by Alexander Girard on display. We yield ground to no man in our admiration of Girard and his canon, but had never considered his work in the context of Pop Art. And so the chance to spend a Friday morning idly comparing Alexander Girard’s works with those of Andy Warhol was as unexpected as it was deliciously satisfying.

The curator’s intention is not to show that Alexander Girad is Pop Art, but to show the similar lines of inspiration between Girard’s Folk Art inspired works and certain motives and motifs in Pop Art. Or put another way to show how Girard’s fascination with Folk Art as the basis for his designs was no different from the artist’s infatuation with branding and commercialisation.

Just one of several common threads of thought highlighted in the exhibition.

A second thread worth mentioning, because it is given high prominence in the exhibition, is politics. Jasper Johns’ “Flag” might not be on show, but an equally compelling questioning of American’s most scared symbol can be seen in Studio 65′s “Leonardo Sofa”. A work placed provocatively next to Warhol’s portrait of Chairman Mao. And quite brilliantly next to Gaetano Pesce’s Moloch Floor Lamp  – a curatorial decision that seems to heap even more derision onto poor Old Glory.

George Nelson, Roy Lichtenstein & Ettore Sottsass @ Pop Art Design

At the opening press conference curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss stated one aim with the exhibition concept was that the design and art should be presented as equal partners, that one should not overshadow the other. For us his chosen concept works.

The lines between the genres are simply not there, one crosses between art and design as easily as one can cross from France to Switzerland at Basel Airport. Yet one never loses sight of where one is and thus has the opportunity to compare, contrast but for all to follow and understand the two way dialogue occurring in the exhibition rooms.

Pop Art Design isn’t an exhibition for those looking to lose themselves for an hour or two in bright colours or abstract objects. For that you would have to go to MoMa. It is however an exhibition for all those wanting to better understand not only what the essence of the Pop Art era was, but also what Pop Art gave us, where Pop Art took us and where much modern design originates.

Enter the exhibition with the same spirit of adventure as those artists and designers featured and you’ll leave with a much richer understanding of a period that is so much more than famous paintings of soup tins or famous sculptures of hamburgers.

Pop Art Design can be viewed at the Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein until Saturday February 3rd 2013. In addition to the exhibition itself the museum is running an extensive supporting programme featuring talks, workshops, films and even a concert.

Full details can be found at www.design-museum.de

Pop Art Design at Vitra Design Museum. Leonardo Sofa, Mao and Moloch.

Pop Art Design at Vitra Design Museum

A small crowd enjoying Charles and Ray Eames 1959 film "Glimpses of the United States"

Post-DMY commitments in Berlin sadly meant that we couldn’t attend the “Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live” event at the Vitra Design Museum.

Fortunately the Vitra Design Museum and their partner, the Dutch design platform Premsela, have released videos of the five projects, through which of course one also gets a feel for the sixth project – the exhibition design by catalogtree.

Shot by the experienced hands at designguide.tv the films offer a wonderful insight into the background to, realisation of and ultimate results of the five projects

And also show that the weather in Weil am Rhein was obviously just as bad as it was in Berlin that week.

Without question the deepest, most existential project was that conceived – almost literally – by Lucas Maassen in cooperation with Roche. Following on from a project in which he got his kids to paint furniture for him, Lucas Maassen crystalised his parents DNA, reproduced the hexagonal lab crystals as real crystals. And then got his parents to build a chandelier using the visualisation of their DNA as the building blocks.

Genius. Just genius.

Yes, its one of those projects that sits ever so slightly more on the art side of the fence than the design. At the moment. Lets wait and see where Lucas takes it.

On a much simpler level, Architecten 2012 created a public seating installation using less-than-perfectly-plated Eames aluminium chair frames combined with waste pieces of wood. They also appear to have strung an Eames “A” seat shell to tree as a swing – which probably impressed us more due to its almost obscene simplicity.

The Eindhoven based Italian design studio formafantasma meanwhile collaborated with charburner Doris Wicki to produce a range of charcoal water purification objects and subsequently served self-purified water together with – charcoal bread. Helps the digestion apparently. It turns up at around 5 mins 45 seconds in their film.

From the images we wouldn’t use the terms “Layers of pleasure” to describe the charcoal bread; but that is just how Wieki Somers describes the deconstruction and subsequent consumption of the ca 100 kilo praline she created together with chocolatier Rafael Mutter. Which appears much more plausible. We don’t think mere words could do the full experience that Wieki created justice; the film does however.

The final contribution to the week came from Dirk Vander Kooij who continued his exploration of designing objects where the final form can be effortlessly and endlessly changed as required without having to create new tools, moulds or otherwise alter the production process. His “Endless” project was one step in that direction, and for Confrontations he collaborated with automotive parts producer A. Raymond to devised a triangle that can be fitted to other triangles as required and then built into 3D objects.

And so although initially the triangle itself appears to be the “product” it is in reality just a simple building block from which the intended objects can be created. If you follow us….

The lights he created with PET triangles certainly looked like an idea worth developing further.

As we say we’ve only seen the videos, but from what we’ve seen “Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live” appears to have run very successfully and certainly produced five very different and very interesting projects.

The exhibition featuring the results can be viewed at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery until September 2nd 2012.

And the good news for all who can’t make it to Weil am Rhein is that Premsela director Els van der Plas indicated that they are considering taking the exhibition on tour. Which sounds excellent. We’re assuming the first show would then be during Dutch Design Week in October…. Watch this space at it were!

All “Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live” videos can be found at vimeo.com/premsela

And below we’ve taken the liberty to embed the video of Architecten 2012 recycling Vitra waste.

Film by designguide.tv for Premsela and the Vitra Design Museum

Parallel to “Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space” the Vitra Design Museum Gallery is staging an exhibition exploring some of the central themes of the great Dutch modernist’s work: experimentation, recycling, working in unison with your materials.

Under the title “Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live”, five Dutch design studios will each collaborate with a company from the Basel metropolitan area to develop an object or installation using the respective firm’s principle material. Live. In-situ. In an afternoon.

The exhibition “cycle” begins on Tuesday June 12th and continues during Design Miami Basel.

Each object/installation will be created on a pallet atop a wire mesh crate. And also displayed on the same. As such the gallery will be empty on the Tuesday morning – save for the unused pallets – and full with the projects on Saturday evening.

All projects will then be on display in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery until September 2nd.

Older readers will already have understood that we are attracted to the exhibition by the possibilities that arise when young designers take a look at long established companies materials and structures. It needn’t be good. But it often is.

But also we find the opportunity to reflect on how the young designers respond to the challenges as compared to how Gerrit Rietveld may, theoretically, have responded to the same very appealing. In how far are Rietveld’s ideas and approaches still relevant and contemporary?

That and the fact that 2012architecten will be working with waste from the Vitra production facility. It’s obviously to be hoped that Vitra learn from the experience and either reduce their waste output or find more creative uses for that that they generate.

We’ll keep you posted.

Vitra Design Museum: Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live. Programme:

The respective design studios will be present and working in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery from 12 noon until 6pm. Entry is free.

Tuesday 12.06 Lucas Maassen with the pharmaceutical producer Roche

Wednesday 13.06 2012architecten with Vitra

Thursday 14.06 formafantasma with charburner Doris Wicki

Friday 15.06 Wieki Somers with chocolatier Rafael Mutter

Saturday 16.06 Dirk Vander Kooij with automotive parts producer A. Raymond.

And for the sake of completeness a sixth studio, catalogtree, are responsible for the, rolling, exhibition design.

Vitra Design Museum: Confrontations - Contemporary Dutch Design Live

If your going to organise an exhibition called “The Revolution of Space”, there is probably no more fitting location than Frank Gehry’s “revolutionary spaced” Vitra Design Museum building in Weil am Rhein. Unless that it is your exhibition happens to be dedicated to Gerrit Rietveld a man whose canon is principally defined by linear, regular, sober forms.

Then you might think twice.

The Vitra Design Museum have risked the contrast and consequently visitors to “The Revolution of Space” are not only presented with an overview of the man, his work, his influence and his legacy; but also the most fantastic series of formal juxtapositions.

Vitra Design Museum: Gerrit Rietveld - The Revolution of Space. Even the weather adapted to the Rietveld monotone

Born in Utrecht in 1888 Gerrit Thomas Rietveld left school at age 12 to work in his father’s carpentry workshop. Following a spell as a technical drawer and model maker for the Utrecht goldsmith and jeweler C.J.A. Berger, Rietveld established his own carpentry workshop in 1917 and the following year he created the first, still colourless, version of his Red Blue Chair; a work that was to prove both a blessing and a millstone. In 1919 Rietveld made his first contact with leading members of the Dutch creative group de Stijl, a movement of artists, designers and architects that equally proved to be blessing and millstone in perfect unison. Subsequent years saw him turn his attention increasingly to architecture projects and in 1928 Gerrit Rietveld was one of the founding members of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture alongside luminaries such as Le Corbusier, Mart Stam or Hannes Meyer.

“The Revolution of Space” is largely based on the exhibition “Rietveld’s Universe” that was shown in Utrecht in 2010. The new title reflecting changes made by the Vitra Design Museum in terms of the context and style of the exhibition. In addition to new items that explain Rietveld in the context of his time, the current exhibition follows a largely chronological progression in contrast to the more thematic approach presented in Utrecht.

Consequently “The Revolution of Space” opens with the Rietveld classics. Which is good. For much like Metallica’s “Black” album tour when they played “Enter Sandman” as the opening song and thus meet all expectations head on, it frees and opens your mind for new, or long forgotten, experiences.

And moving beyond the classics, one understands not only in how many different fields Rietveld was active, but in how many areas of furniture design and architecture he was ahead of his time. And how much of what he attempted, but didn’t necessarily realise, can be enjoyed in the work of designers from later periods.

If, for example, a chair formed from a single piece of bent metal sounds familiar, then the chances are you’ve read our interview with Harry Thaler.

The form language and concept are completely different, but Rietveld was there in 1942; experimenting, pushing limits, doing exactly what the HFBK Hamburg symposium ”Warum Getsaltung?” taught us is the designers primary function.

And it’s not just Harry who has found himself temporally upstaged by the assiduous heer Rietveld, “The Revolution of Space” contains numerous examples of designers whose work either shows indications of Rietveld’s influence or whose work involves themes that Rietveld was experimenting with a generation or two previously.

For us the parallels to Bauhaus are most interesting.

Because they pose the question, why didn’t Gerrit Rietveld go to Bauhaus?

The visual similarities between the principle Rietveld works and the popular Bauhaus works is unquestionable, as is the fact that Rietveld and several Bauhäusler were working in a similar fashion on very similar themes at similar times, and that they unquestionably influenced one another. While in our interview with Bauhaus Archiv Berlin director Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi she talks about how part of the Bauhaus philosophy was testing materials and discovering what was possible with them. In every room of the Vitra Design Museum one finds examples of Gerrit Rietveld doing just that.

And so why not join forces?

The exhibition curators Ida van Zijl from the Centraal Museum Utrecht and Amelie Znidaric from Vitra Design Museum are in full agreement that Rietveld’s private situation in Holland simply didn’t allow him to travel to Bauhaus. It wasn’t an issue. And that in any case he was probably happy enough with those projects he had, and simply didn’t have any real desire or need to travel to Germany.

Which, to misquote Berlin’s PM Klaus Wowereit “…ist auch gut so.”

For had he travelled to Weimar or Dessau there is the obvious risk that he would have become just another part of the Bauhaus story.

Which would have been an injustice.

For be it as a pioneer of Open Design, as an modern urban planner or as one of the first designers to be asked to design aircraft interiors, Gerrit Rietveld was a man of many, many talents.

Our attention was especially caught by the models, sketches and furniture pieces relating to Gerrit Rietveld’s numerous projects examining issues of social housing, pre-fabrication and generally improving the workers domestic lot.

For us the parallels with Jean Prouvé are inescapable, but according to Ida van Zijl there is one central difference, “For Prouvé the industrial production was very important, for Rietveld the idea was more important. It was less important how it was made, important was that it was made”

And therein lies, possibly, a further reason why Gerrit Rietveld never went to Bauhaus. His heart potentially beating a little more for the craft and less for the industry, thus putting him more in the tradition of Arts and Crafts or Deutsche Werkbund than the industrial focused Bauhaus.

A model for the Verriet Institute for handicapped children, Curacao. Designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Henk Nolte 1949-52

Despite all the genuine innovation, vision and experimentation, Gerrit Rietveld remains a man trapped by his early work; for all the Red Blue Chair has become such a design icon that it is nigh on impossible for most of us to separate the man from that one object. But why should that be? Is the early work really better than what came later? Why does the popular image of Gerrit Rietveld stop just as his career was really starting ? For Ida van Zijl, part of the problem can be found, somewhat ironically, in the movement that initially brought Rietveld to a wider public, “de Stijl is so important in the history of the 20th century, and consequently those works that were produced in context of de Stijl are inevitably the best known and most widely recognised”

And so by extrapolation shroud all other works. Which in Rietveld’s case is the majority of his oeuvre, and in particular his later works.

Works we may never have had if the Centraal Museum Utrecht hadn’t staged a Rietveld retrospective in 1958 that re-focused attention on the man and highlighted his contribution to European architecture and design.

That said Rietveld remains someone whose rehabilitation is not yet complete, he remains a man who it is all too easy to describe in three or four projects. “The Revolution of Space” beautifully makes clear that there is much more to Gerrit Rietveld, much more to enjoy, much more to discover, much more to learn.

We hope that visitors take the hint.

And the location ? Would Gerrit T. Rietveld approve of a building such as the Vitra Design Museum? Would he be glad that his work was on show in a Frank O. Gehry temple to the decadent formless organic? We ask curator Ida van Zijl. She laughs warmly.”Definitely! He wasn’t a crusader, wasn’t on a mission to convert others to his beliefs. There was, for example, a Dutch architect called van Ravesteyn who developed an almost baroque form of functionalism. All the leading Dutch architects of the day criticised him and said that what he was doing was wrong. And it was Rietveld who said “No! Everyone has their own interpretation of modernism”, And so I think he’d be interested to see this building and very happy to have his work on display here”

Gerrit T. Rietveld The Revolution of Space can be viewed at the Vitra Design Museum Weil am Rhein until September 16th 2012.

Until September 16th the Grassi Museum Leipzig is showing the Vitra Design Museum exhibition The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction.

And so keeping with the theme, we’ll keep our post reduced and simply link to our post from The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

Paul Weller is famously of the opinion that it’s ludicrous to expect him to sing songs today that he wrote as an 18 year old. His world view having, naturally, changed since then. Similarly, we don’t agree with everything we wrote back in 2010. But it still, largely, represents our views on the exhibition.

As anyone involved in the designer furniture industry will confirm; it’s a secretive old world. Probably only matched in its inherent furtiveness by the Freemasons, Papal Conclaves or the committee responsible for setting petrol prices.

Simply saying that you might have heard that designer X may be considering a possible future cooperation with producer Y is to risk a long interrogation by a Product Manager wanting to know who told you what.

The situation is even more clandestine when it comes to production processes and technical issues.

And so for us it is all the more wonderful that last year the Vitra Design Museum allowed video cameras into the factory that produces their Miniature Collection.

For just as with Area 51 it is a location that officially doesn’t exist. And that despite the commercial success of the product they produce.

Established in 1992 by the Vitra Design Museum’s founding director Alexander von Vegesack, essentially as a fund-raising platform for the museum, the original series of half a dozen miniatures has grown into a proud collection of over 100 models of design classics – all in 1:6 scale.

In addition to established Vitra classics such as the Panton Chair, George Nelson‘s Coconut Chair or the neigh-on complete Eames Collection, the series also features many of furniture designs most important moments including the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe, Hans J. Wegner’s Y-chair or Alvar Aalto’s Paimio 41.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Vitra Design Museum Miniature Collection a special exhibition is being staged during Milan Design Week 2012. Under the title “Dimensions of Design” 100 Vitra Design Museum miniatures are being presented in the Hugo Boss flagship store in downtown Milan; together with the most amazing “birthday cake” creation. In addition to the chance to marvel at the skill of the unseen craftsmen and women who create the miniatures the exhibition is also both a delightful documentation of the story of furniture design and a calming counterbalance to the madness that it is Milan. Here one has chairs that truly matter.

And then there is the aforementioned cinematic documentation.

Produced by Studio Rygalik for the Vitra Design Museum the film provides a rare, if all too short, insight into the precision production processes involved in the Miniature Collection – don’t miss the construction of the Marshmallow Sofa, pure genius -  but much more it beautifully underscores with just how much care, professionalism and genuine innovation each and every miniature is created.

For as we learned from Vitra Design Museum Directors Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner – not only is each chair a perfect 1:6 scale version of the original for which licence fees are paid to the rights holder, but where necessary special tools, moulds and processes are developed.

And it is this dedication to the cause that has made the Vitra Design Museum Miniatures Collection the global success it is.

And that is something that shouldn’t be kept secret.

“Dimensions of Design. 20 Years of Vitra Design Museum Miniatures” can be viewed at the HUGO BOSS Menswear Store, Corso Matteotti 1, 20121 Milan until April 22nd 2012.

Vitra Design Museum Miniatures Collection. Film by Studio Rygalik © Vitra Design Museum.

Ostensibly established as a location for presenting and archiving Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum’s private collection of designer furniture, the Vitra Design Museum has developed into one of Europe’s most important centres for design, design history but for all, for explaining design and making design accessible.

A large part of the museum’s success can be credited to founding Director Alexander von Vegesack who led the institution from its opening in 1989 until the end of 2010.

In January 2011 Marc Zehntner and Mateo Kries took over the reins as a joint management team; Marc Zehntner responsible for the management of the museum, Mateo Kries for the programme.

Shortly after the first anniversary of their succession we caught up with Marc Zehntner and Mateo Kries and before we got round to asking how/if the dual leadership was working, started by asking them if the opening of the VitraHaus had had any noticeable effect on visitor numbers in the Design Museum?

Marc Zehntner, Vitra Design Museum Director / Management

Marc Zehntner: We had no real idea how things would be and so in advance we worked through various scenarios; less visitors, same level and more visitors. And at the moment we can say numbers are steady, tending to positive. It is of course strongly dependent on what we are showing, but in principle there are two distinct types of visitor. Those who come specifically to visit the Design Museum, and who then may go into the Vitrahaus, and then those who come specifically to visit the Vitrahaus, and we can motivate some of them to then come and visit us. But it’s not the case that all Vitrahaus visitors come to us; which given the size of the museum is good, because we wouldn’t have room for them all….

(smow)blog:  In that sense was part of the thinking with the “new” Vitra Design Museum Gallery, that you could maybe attract more Vitrahaus visitor with smaller, less intense exhibitions?

Marc Zehntner:That was something that we calculated in the planning, but the real thinking was to be able to offer a wider range of events, also during the transfer phases between exhibitions when the main museum building is closed. With the gallery we can now offer visitors an exhibition every day, except for the three days in the year when we are closed. And that wasn’t the case before.

Mateo Kries:  Another idea behind the gallery was the museum is in good health, is running well, but the question was how can we grow. And that needn’t just mean more exhibitions in the Gehry building. With the gallery we have the opportunity to organise exhibitions and events at relatively short notice and so offer exhibitions that are maybe more current than is normally the case. In the main museum we have a preparation time of around two years for a new exhibition. In contrast the planning for both the recent Jerszy Seymour event or the current Bouroullec exhibition started last summer.

(smow)blog:  And so in general how long do you need for the gallery exhibitions, is it a matter of weeks, or months or…

Marc Zehntner:At least a couple of months, but it obviously depends on what we are doing. If we take something like the Jerszy Seymour action, that was something new that hadn’t been done before, which is a different scenario from an exhibition primarily featuring items from our collection which again is different from something such as Album, which is an existing exhibition that needed to be adapted for our space.

Mateo Kries: For example, while the Bouroullecs was a relatively short run-up, during Art Basel we’ll have an exhibition featuring 6 Dutch designers which, in relation to the size of the gallery, is a much more complicated and intensive project that takes a little more time to compile. But we want keep the preparation times as short as possible because we want to be able to offer more up to date shows.

(smow)blog: In addition to the exhibitions here, you also have the travelling exhibitions. How important are the travelling exhibitions, firstly financially and secondly in terms of marketing and advertising the Vitra Design Museum?

Marc Zehntner: Centrally important. The touring exhibitions have always been part of the museum’s concept, the founding director Alexander von Vegesack developed the idea and while today many museums do such, back then it was more the exception than the rule. That the Vitra Design Museum is so globally known and recognised is largely due to the travelling exhibitions. And from the financial perspective it’s almost impossible to make a profit from an exhibition, but with the travelling shows we can, in the ideal case, break even.

(smow)blog: How many exhibitions do you currently have “on tour”

Marc Zehntner: At the moment it is 12. Last year we had 19 openings globally, not including those here in Weil am Rhein.

Mateo Kries, Vitra Design Museum Director / Programm

(smow)blog: One of the more interesting sources of income for the Museum is the miniatures collection. A collection that has grown steadily over the past 20 years. Who decides which models will be newly added, or what criteria do you apply?

Marc Zehntner: That is initially a team process involving the curators and those team members who look after the collection, but also, for example, the marketing department. And so first we compile a tentative list – what would we ideally like? What makes sense, especially in context of a forthcoming exhibition, for example we brought out an anthroposophic chair last year on account of the Steiner exhibition. The final decision to produce a miniature however is always “Can we produce the miniature close enough to the original and achieve our quality standards?” And many of our wishes go unfulfilled because they can’t be realised, or at least not to a price that is realistic…..

(smow)blog:….and in that context is it correct that you also pay license fees for the miniatures just as with real chairs?

Marc Zehntner: Yes, which can also be further reason why a miniature doesn’t make it onto the market. But that is less often the case, normally we reach an amicable agreement with the license holder.

Mateo Kries: But not just the license fees are analogous to the “real world”, everything is exactly the same as with normal product development. We often need to develop special machines or tools, for example, to create the wicker work or moulds etc. Just the same as with full size objects.

Marc Zehntner: And when we’re fairly certain that something will be produced then come prototypes that are tested, inspected etc and so it is essentially the same process.

(smow)blog: Which we presume also means just as with a real chair you can invest months in model and prototype building; and at the end of the day have nothing to show for it?

Mateo Kries: Yes, that happens often. We’ve a long, long list of products that either didn’t work or didn’t meet our quality standards.

(smow)blog: To finish, for the past year you’ve shared the management of the Vitra Design Museum. Is that working, or …?

Marc Zehntner: Clearly the double leadership is a test, and even though the plan had been worked out and refined over a number of years before we took on the jobs, no-one could say for certain how it would develop. But it’s working out very well and we’re both very happy with the situation. And the museum itself is also developing steadily and currently finances itself to a great proportion, which is unusual in the museum world. We have a good, motivated team, interesting projects and so we can look very positively into the future.

(smow)blog: So no risk of the ideas running out?

Mateo Kries: The problem is more that we have too many possibilities! For the next three or four years we have so many options our biggest problem will be realising everything we want to. But it is fantastic position to be in. And even though we took on the museum in a very good position, we feel we’ve brought it on and are bringing in positive, new ideas. In the spring, for example, we will relaunch the website, which will include the first online impressions of the collection, plus we currently have a discussion or similar event here every couple of weeks and we notice that the public are responding very positively to the new fuller, livelier programmes. These are obviously all small steps, but together they will see the museum change and evolve as institution and see it become a much more vibrant location that doesn’t just present exhibitions exploring the most important design themes and topics but much more asks question of the visitors and so becomes more of an experience.

Marc Zehntner: And ultimately it’s the same for any museum that really uses its collection; there are enough stories we must just pick out those stories we want to tell. And that’s what makes the work so special.

Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein. In the background the VitraHaus

Having got up in the middle of the night to travel through the depths of the European winter just to get to Weil am Rhein for the “Album” opening, you can imagine our joy when we heard that Erwan Bouroullec had frozen to his core while waiting to board the 6.15 Basel bound TGV.

Not because we’re cruel, heartless beasts who take pleasure in the suffering of others. At least not on this occasion.

But because it is one of these nice reminders of how “normal” the design world is and designers are.

A personal insight into the banal everyday reality that is a designers lot.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in discussion with Vitra Design Museum Chief Curator Mateo Kries

Featuring over 300 of the brother’s sketches, complimented by models, photographs and artifacts from the design process, “Album” isn’t a retrospective of the Bouroullec’s work. Nor is it an exploration of their place in European design history. But rather is a simple discussion about where design comes from and the process that leads to design products. Not from the cold, sober, considered “Gare de Lyon, 6am” business perspective from which we are used to seeing the Bouroullec’s work presented; but from the emotional, uncertain, “Got up far too early, left my family, why don’t we have fur??!!” human perspective from which we are not.

A personal insight into the banal everyday reality that is a designers lot.

Album does of course feature images of and references to many of their famous works, but also naive, abstract forms, projects that never got further than the sketchbook and child-like drawings that tend to reinforce that a chair is just four legs, a seat and a back-rest. In addition there are a few cuddly yet thoughtful looking fantasy creatures that suggest should the design contracts ever dry up, a glorious second career as kids books illustrators awaits.

Although unmistakably about Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Album is also a documentation of the essentially analogue nature of design. Computers and digital technology can help, can speed things up and aid the industry side of design.

But if you can’t visualise what you want and express that in a few simple lines then the chances of ever realising the project are slim.

In recent weeks we’ve focused quite a lot on “furniture architects”. One could argue that architects are suited to furniture design because they understand static and scale, can make things work. The Bouroullec’s background is classical art. And in Album one understands that what they may lack in technical training they more than make up for in an emotional connection to their work and understanding of visual composition.

Which of course brings us back to what Patricia Urquiola meant with her opinion that architects don’t necessarily make the best furniture.

Vitra Design Museum Gallery: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec "Album"

Having recently seen their work presented in spaces of 700 sqm and 1000 sqm; the foot and half they’ve got in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery is a bit like having U2 play in your kitchen: what it lacks in spatial scale is more than compensated by intensity.

You cannot escape the works. Cannot escape the connections and the randomness. Cannot escape being drawn in.

Album itself probably isn’t worth the trip to Weil to Rhein. But it, and indeed the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, aren’t intended as being big crowd pullers in their own right. Rather as an extension and consolidation of the existing Vitra Campus. And certainly as an additional attraction when visiting VitraHaus and/or Design Museum, Album is well worth exploring and getting to know.

Personally.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec “Album” runs at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery until June 6th

Vitra Design Museum Gallery: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec "Album"

Vitra Design Museum Gallery: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec "Album"

Vitra Design Museum Gallery: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec "Album"