Vitra Schaudepot

Vitra Schaudepot
Outside of Vitra Schaudepot
General information
Address	Charles-Eames-Straße 2
Town or city	Weil am Rhein
Country	Germany
Coordinates	47°36′00″N 7°36′53″E / 47.60003950913252°N 7.614762190087447°E / 47.60003950913252; 7.614762190087447
Opened	June 2016
Owner	Vitra
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Herzog & de Meuron

The Vitra Schaudepot is a museum on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany.^[1] It was designed by Herzog & de Meuron and opened in the summer of 2016.^[2] It displays modern furniture pieces by Charles and Ray Eames, and other designers, from the Vitra Design Museum's collection, as well as part of the Barragán Archive, and numerous limited-time exhibitions.^[3] It also has a café and shop.^[4][5]

The Vitra Schaudepot was imagined as a museum space to showcase much of the Vitra Design Museum's collection, totaling over 7,000 pieces, while the latter building, designed by Frank Gehry, was used for temporary exhibitions.^[6] Designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the building is made of bricks, with a gabled roof, and bears an industrial appearance kept from the old factory building before, with expansive interiors for both permanent and temporary setups.^[7][8][9]

The museum opened on June 3, 2016 and displayed a permanent exhibition of over 400 pieces of modern furniture while also hosting a temporary exhibition dedicated to "radical design" from the sixties and seventies led by Italian designers.^[2][10] Many of the pieces, from the Vitra Design Museum's collection, had never been publicly accessible before then.^[11]

The Vitra Schaudepot's first temporary exhibition, in 2016, was Radical Design, a show dedicated to Italian designers from the avant-garde movement of the sixties and seventies such as Guido Rocco and Piero Gilardi. It was curated by Heng Zhi.^[12]

From 2016–2017, the Vitra Schaudepot displayed Dieter Rams: Modular World, an exhibition on the furniture and appliances of Dieter Rams, also curated by Zhi.^[13]

In 2017, the works of Ettore Sottsass were displayed in the exhibition, Ettore Sottsass–Rebel and Poet, which included furniture, products, photographs, and documents from the Italian designer.^[14]

From May 2022 to May 2023, Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis reorganized the Vitra Design Museum's archive entirely by color for an exhibition titled Color Rush.^[15] Each color was placed on its own translucent shelving in order to produce strong contrasts between one another.^[16]

In 2024, the Vitra Schaudepot debuted a temporary exhibition showcasing sci-fi design, titled Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse.^[17] It ran until May 11, 2025.^[18]