Since 1981, when a great fire completely destroyed the Vitra factory, the owners of the firm ordered new buildings for their production complex to the best architects in the world. The first was Nicholas Grimshaw, who built the main workshop of aluminum panels, which was ready within six months after the fire. Then there was Alvaro Siza (another workshop in 1986 and a design workshop in 1994)), Frank Gehry (Vitra Design Museum in 1989), Zaha Hadid (factory fire department in 1993, the first completed project of this architect, now used to display the collection chairs), Tadao Ando (a conference room in 1993, his first building outside Japan), as well as even Buckminster Fuller (his geodesic dome was installed in Vejle in 2000 and serves as a reception hall) and Jean Prouvé (his gas station was collected there in 2003).
Now to this "star" ensemble will be added "VitraHouse" - a visitor center with a shop and a cafe according to the project "Herzog & de Meuron", and "Vitrashop" - a production workshop of SANAA.
VitraHouse is reminiscent of another recent project by Swiss architects - the new wing of the Tate Modern. In Weill, as in London, albeit on a more modest scale, a complex volume will be erected, as if composed of separate "cubes". In this case, these are elongated white parallelepipeds with an imitation of a gable roof, completely glazed from the ends. Through these multi-colored windows you can see their interior. Together they form a four-storey structure, the main idea of which is the first type of the house itself (hence the gable roof and the name VitraHouse), reworked by pressing and stacking (not without reason we are talking about a factory).
Almost nothing is known about Vitrashop yet - the public was shown only the general layout of the Vitra ensemble, where one could see a large disc of the new workshop, connected with the buildings of Grimshaw and Siz by passages. SANAA architects reported that the ceiling height of the future production facility is 8 meters, and an additional mezzanine floor with office and recreational premises will also be located above it. Lighting will be provided through the glazed sections of the slabs, and the façade will be clad in corrugated panels of an unnamed material, which will create an imitation of a curtain that hides the building.
Both Vitrashop and VitraHouse will be ready in 2009.
