VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM : EXHIBITION OVERVIEW 2024

Images courtesy of Vitra Design Museum

2024 Is About Energy and Design – An Urgent Issue of Our Time

Transform! Designing the Future of Energy
23 March to 1 September 2024

XTU architectes, X_Land, Rendering, 2020

Energy is the force that keeps our society going; energy is political; energy is invisible. The buildings, infrastructures, and devices for generating, distributing, and using energy are products of design, however, and design has a central role to play in the urgently needed transformation of the energy system. 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. The exhibition probes into the global thirst for energy and examines how design can assist us in switching to renewable energies and reducing our energy consumption. What action do industry and politics need to take, what can each individual contribute to a successful energy transition?

Charles and Ray Eames, Solar Do Nothing Machine, 1957

Nike Designs: Form Follows Motion
21 September 2024 to 3 March 2025

Original Swoosh Design by Carolyn Davidson, 1972

In autumn 2024, the Vitra Design Museum will present a major exhibition that explores the design history of Nike, one of the world’s most revered sports brands. The exhibition will follow the evolution of iconic Nike objects through a focused design lens, tracing milestones and inspirations across the company’s 50-year legacy. It will shine a spotlight on Nike‘s scientific research in apparel, footwear design, and accessories, which always begins with closely examining the body in motion, ultimately melding technology and visionary concepts to redefine functional aesthetics. For the first time, the exhibition will present a large selection of materials from Nike’s design archives, including drawings, prototypes, historic film footage and other documents. Coinciding with the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the exhibition looks at Nike as the ideal case study for the close connection between design and sports – from the underlying scientific research to the key role of sports and sports apparel in today’s pop culture.

3D Needle 2 by Bob Mervar from Experiments in Natural Motion, 2016

Presented by Som Santoso

VITRA SCHAUDEPOT

Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse
18 May 2024 to 11 May 2025

Lloyd Schwan, Statuette, 1995

How was and is the future being imagined in design? The annual presentation at the Vitra Schaudepot is dedicated to the vision of a new world, and crosses a bridge from the furnishing in early science fiction movies to design for virtual spaces. Groundbreaking design objects from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum show how technical innovations and design utopias have found their way into our everyday lives and directly shape our everyday world.

Andrés Reisinger, Hortensia, Digital Piece, 2018

VITRA CAMPUS & VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM GALLERY

Tsuyoshi Tane: The Garden House
18 November 2023 to 21 April 2024

Tane Garden House

The presentation »Tsuyoshi Tane: The Garden House« at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery is dedicated to the recently constructed Tane Garden House on the Vitra Campus. With a footprint of barely 15 square metres, the house combines a rooftop viewing platform for Campus visitors and a meeting room for the gardeners who tend the grounds. Tsuyoshi Tane understood that this project was small in scale, but large in meaning. This is reflected in the Japanese architect’s unique design approach, which is based on an intensive research process that explores the local context in order to utilize traditional handicrafts as well as regional resources. The exhibition, which was conceived by the architect, presents study models, architectural mock-ups and drawings of the building, along with impressions of the close collaboration with local artisans.

Concept/volume study models