The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide. The non-circulating library is open to the public by prior appointment from 9.00 – 12.00 am and 1.00 – 5.00 pm on weekdays. The construction of the Schaudepot allows for a permanent presentation of the collection, while offering a diverse educational programme.The library’s holdings encompass over 7000 volumes on open-stack shelving and a large inventory of international periodicals from the 1950s up to today, providing primary research material for the preparation of new exhibitions and projects, along with sources for the documentation and contextualisation of objects in the museum collection and its archives. Today the collection of the Vitra Design Museum encompasses a total of around 20 000 objects, with some 7000 pieces of furniture, more than 1000 lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the Collection of the Eames Office, or the estates of Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. To date, the museum’s collection has never been on permanent display.For over two decades, the Vitra Design Museum has been making miniature replicas of milestones in furniture design from its collection. In the video, a handful of designers and architects accompany Vitra Design Museum founder and former CEO Rolf Fehlbaum, one-by-one, on a white-gloved tour of part of its world-famous collection, arranged as a “sea of chairs” in the Herzog and de Meuron–designed Schaudepot gallery. The high standard of authenticity even extends to the natural grain of the wood, the reproduction of screws and the elaborate handicraft techniques involved. The collection of the Vitra Design Museum en miniature. The Miniatures Collection encapsulates the entire history of industrial furniture design – moving from Historicism and Art Nouveau to the Bauhaus and New Objectivity, from Radical Design and Postmodernism all the way up to the present day.Exactly one sixth the size of the historical originals, the chairs are all true to scale and precisely recreate the smallest details of construction, material and colour. The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide.
The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide. Information about the contents of the Vitra Design Museum Library, which belongs to the SWB Library Network (Südwestdeutscher Bibliotheksverbund), is accessible through an online catalogue. It contains some 7000 pieces of furniture, over 1000 lighting objects, and numerous archives, as well as the estates of such designers as Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton, and Alexander Girard.Although the main museum building by Frank Gehry from 1989 was originally conceived to house the collection, the museum now utilises the space to stage major temporary exhibitions. The miniatures collection by the Vitra Design Museum includes key objects of the international design history of 1850 until today. The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide.
Our classic The Chair Collection poster shows 224 selected pieces of the Vitra Design Museum’s collection of several thousands original designs, which currently comprises over 7,000 objects. The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide. The poster was reworked in September 2018 and adapted to the latest scientific research.
It contains some 7000 pieces of furniture, a vast assemblage of lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the Collection of the Eames Office, or the estates of Verner Panton and Alexander Girard.
Although the main museum building by Frank Gehry (1989) was originally conceived to house the collection, the museum utilises the space to stage major temporary exhibitions. On 4 June 2016 the Vitra Schaudepot was opened, created by the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, in which the Vitra Design Museum presents key pieces of its collection.At the Vitra Schaudepot, which is designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the Vitra Design Museum presents key objects from its extensive collection, creating one the largest permanent exhibitions and research sites on contemporary furniture design. It contains some 7000 pieces of furniture, a vast assemblage of lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the Collection of the Eames Office, or the estates of Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. This has made the miniatures into popular collector's items as well as ideal illustrative material for universities, design schools and architects. If you would like to visit the library, please contact