Vitra Schaudepot

The Vitra Schaudepot by Herzog & de Meuron was created to house and display part of the Vitra Design Museum’s furniture collection. Opened in 2016 on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, it brings together more than 400 key works of modern furniture design from a much larger collection of furniture pieces, lighting objects, archives, and designer estates.

The building is defined by restraint and clarity. Its gabled roof, windowless façade, and compact silhouette give it an almost archetypal presence, somewhere between storehouse, chapel, and industrial shed. The exterior is clad in hand-broken brick, split on site to create a rough, tactile surface that deepens the otherwise monolithic volume.

Inside, the Schaudepot functions as both exhibition space and archive. A large hall, evenly lit by a strict ceiling grid of fluorescent tubes, presents the collection in a dense and systematic arrangement. Restoration workshops, a library, offices, a café, and temporary exhibition spaces extend the building’s role as a quiet infrastructure for the preservation and study of design.

Set near Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station and close to the factory buildings on the campus, the Schaudepot adds a quieter but powerful voice to Vitra’s architectural ensemble.