Iwan Baan is one of today’s leading photographers of architecture and urban design. His images document the growth of global megacities and portray buildings by prominent contemporary architects including Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, and Zaha Hadid. The first large retrospective of the Dutch photographer’s work will open at the Vitra Design Museum in autumn 2023. Baan’s vibrant realism puts the focus on people and their relationship to the built environment. His observant eye presents architecture not as an abstract ideal, but as the setting of everyday life, an organic part of the urban fabric – be it suburban sprawl or the booming metropoles of Africa and Asia. The exhibition will include a number of Baan’s iconic works, many of which are familiar from magazines and books, as well as photographs of vernacular and informal architecture all around the world, from the round Tulou of southern China to the rockhewn churches of Ethiopia. Thanks to the great scope of his vision, Baan’s works offer a broad panorama of human building that impressively demonstrates the existential importance of architecture and urban design.

Plastic has shaped our daily lives like no other material. Originally associated with convenience, progress, even revolution, today plastic seems to have lost its utopian appeal. Plastic is everywhere, yet most conspicuous as waste and as a key factor in the global environmental crisis. This book examines the success story of plastic in the twentieth century and at the same time presents the different discourses on how we should manage the waste the material produces and also find solutions that take into account its entire life cycle in the future. Mark Miodownik, Susan Freinkel, and Nanjala Nyabola each contribute an essay that sheds light on the history of plastics from 1850 to today. A material-rich visual chronology illustrates how consumers' perception of plastics has changed over the decades. Brief descriptions of a selection of 50 objects examine the importance of plastics for material culture. Reprints of fundamental texts about the history of plastics-for example by Alexander Parkes and Roland Barthes-provide a context from the history of ideas. The book reflects the current discourse and state of research on plastic with numerous individual interviews and panel discussions that were held with designers, representatives from industry, researchers, and environmental activists. Underpinning these conversations are comprehensive data visualizations on plastic production and consumption, recycling.

The cheap, colourful plastic designs from East Germany pitted against the cool functionalism of West German design: The publication German Design 1949 - 1989: Two Countries, One History does away with such cliches. More than 30 years after German reunification, it presents a comprehensive overview of German design history of the post-war period for the first time ever. With over 380 illustrations and numerous examples from the fields of design-fashion, furniture, graphics, automobile, industrial, and interiors-the book shows how design featured in daily life on both sides of the Wall, the important part it played in the reconstruction process and how it served as a propaganda tool during the Cold War. Key objects and protagonists-from Dieter Rams or Otl Aicher in the West to Rudolf Horn or Renate Muller in the East-are presented alongside formative factors such as the Bauhaus legacy and important institutions. The exceptional case of the division of Germany allows a unique comparative perspective on the role design played in promoting socialism and capitalism. While in the Federal Republic to the West, it became a generator of the export economy and the "Made in Germany" brand, in the East it was intended to fuel the socialist planned economy and affordability for broad sections of the population was key. While the book highlights the different realities of East and West, the many cross references that connected design in both are also examined. It impressively illustrates the many facets of German design history in the post-war period. With contributions by Paul Betts, Greg Castillo, Petra Eisele, Siegfried Gronert, Jana Scholze, Katharina Pfutzner, Eli Rubin, Katrin Schreiter, Oliver Sukrow, Carsten Wolff, among others; interviews with Prem Krishnamurthy, Renate Muller and Dieter Rams.

Gardens have always been places of leisure, pleasure, and production – they reflect identities, dreams, and visions. Deeply rooted in their culture, gardens have immense symbolic potential. The recent revival of horticulture has focused less on the garden as a romantic refuge than as a place where we imagine the future and develop solutions. Urban farms, vertical gardens, and other innovative projects in art, architecture, and urban planning demonstrate that the present return to the garden is no timid retreat, but a pioneering quest for a world in which social and ecological justice count for something. Garden Futures examines what gardens and their design reveal about our relationship to nature. In exploring the history of ideas behind the genesis of the modern garden, the book takes a close look at the present, goes in search of origins in the past, and builds bridges into the future. Stunning photographs illustrate ground-breaking gardens by such designers as Derek Jarman and Piet Oudolf while critical articles by well-known authors question conventional garden ideals. Authors and gardeners including Gilles Clement and Jamaica Kincaid present the garden as a place of learning where abstract concepts like ecology, climate change, and food insecurity are translated into things you can smell, touch, and taste. Daisy Ginsberg, Salmon Creek Farm, and EcoLogic Studio create experimental and speculative projects generating new attitudes and approaches.

In 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will publish the Atlas of Furniture Design, the definitive, encyclopedic overview of the history of modern furniture design. Featuring over 1700 objects by more than 500 designers and 121 manufacturers, it includes approximately 2800 images ranging from detailed object photographs to historical images documenting interiors, patents, brochures, and related works of art and architecture. The basis for the Atlas of Furniture Design is the collection held by the Vitra Design Museum, one of the largest of its kind with more than 7000 works. The book presents selected pieces by the most important designers of the last 230 years and documents key periods in design history, including early nineteenth-century industrial furniture in bentwood and metal, Art Nouveau and Secessionist pieces and works by protagonists of classical modernism and postwar design, as well as postmodern and contemporary pieces. The Atlas of Furniture Design employed a team of more than 70 experts and features over 550 detailed texts about key objects. In-depth essays provide sociocultural and design-historical context to four historical epochs of furniture design and the pieces highlighted here, enriched by a detailed annex containing designer biographies, glossaries, and elaborate information graphics. The Atlas of Furniture Design is an indispensable resource for collectors, scholars and experts, as well as a beautifully designed object that speaks to design enthusiasts.

Hello, Robot. Design Between Human and Machine investigates how robotics is becoming part of our everyday lives. The exhibitions shows that design in its traditional function as a mediator is indispensable if robots are to become a visible reality and not just remain hidden in washing machines, cars and cash machines. The volume clarifies where we already encounter these intelligent machines and where we may come across them in the near future: in industry, in the military and in everyday settings; at nurseries and retirement homes; in our bodies and in the cloud; when shopping and having sex; in video games and, of course, in film and literature. In a series of in-depth essays and interviews, experts such as the science fiction author Bruce Sterling and the design duo Dunne & Raby explore the question of how we deal with our environment becoming increasingly digital, smarter and more autonomous. They highlight our often ambivalent relationship to new technologies and discuss the opportunities and challenges that are posed to us as individuals and as a society in this context. In this regard, Hello, Robot. broadens the scope of the discussion to the ethical and political questions with which we are faced today in the light of technological advances in robotics, whilst confronting us with the contradictions that are often found in the answers to these questions.

Since the 1980s, Vitra has enlisted some of the world's leading architects to design buildings for its campus, including Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, SANAA, Alvaro Siza, Nicholas Grimshaw and Herzog & de Meuron. This has resulted in a unique architectural ensemble that attracts 350,000 visitors each year, about which Philip Johnson wrote: "Since the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart in 1927, there has not been a gathering in a single place of a group of buildings designed by the most distinguished architects in the Western world." While the renowned Vitra Design Museum presents alternating exhibitions, the Schaudepot gives visitors an insight into parts of the museum's extensive collection. In addition, during their time on the Campus, visitors can take part in a guided tour of the architecture or a workshop, enjoy the view from the Vitra Slide Tower and afterwards slide down the 37-meter-long slide, experience furniture classics and new products from the Vitra Home Collection in the VitraHaus as well as savour the offers of the shops and cafes. Originally published in 2014, this revised flexibound edition of The Vitra Campus offers an overview of Vitra architecture, its daily use, the development of the Campus and biographies of the contributing architects. An ideal souvenir and campus guide, The Vitra Campus is also a fascinating read about some of the most significant architects and buildings of our time.

Making Africa" takes a fresh look at African design. For the first time, we have a book that focuses on creative accomplishments on the continent, without being obsessed with the usual tropes of recycling, humanitarian design or traditional crafts. Instead, "Making Africa" shows a new generation of designers who use their work as a tool for economic, political and social change and therefore also to create a new future for the continent. Their creative output defies all definitions of genres - crossing over classical fields such as furniture design, product design and typography to encompass digital media, art, photography, architecture and film. A large section of the catalogue is dedicated to documenting work by over 120 protagonists of Africa's new creative epoch - including Cyrus Kabiru, Cheick Diallo, Mario Macilau, Francis Kere, David Adjaye, Kunle Adeyemi, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Robin Rhode, Alaforu Sikoki, Selly Raby Kan and many more. The historical and theoretical background is explored in essays and discussions with Okwui Enwezor, Koyo Kouoh, Edgar Pieterse and Amelie Klein, among others. These are complemented by statements from around 70 other experts from Africa, who met at interviews and think tanks in cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Dakar, Nairobi and Cairo. This is a book about the future of Africa and about a new, more open way of understanding design - which means it is also a book about what design can achieve in the 21st century.

Surrealism expanded our reality by drawing upon myths, dreams, and the subconscious as sources of artistic inspiration. Beginning in the 1930s, the movement made a crucial impact on design, and it continues to inspire designers to this day. "Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design" is the first book to document this fascinating conversation. It includes numerous essays and a comprehensive selection of images which traces these reciprocal exchanges by juxtaposing exemplary artworks and design objects. Among the featured artists and designers are Gae Aulenti, Achille Castiglioni, Giorgio de Chirico, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, ntoni Gaudi, Frederick Kiesler, Rene Magritte, Carlo Mollino, Meret Oppenheim, and many others. The book is rounded off with historical text material as well as short texts and statements by contemporary designers. This in- depth examination makes one thing abundantly clear: form does not always follow function - it can also follow our obsessions, our fantasies, and our hidden desires.

Konstantin Grcic (born 1965) is one of the leading designers of our time. Many of his creations, such as Chair_One (2004) or the Mayday lamp (1999), are already recognized as design classics. "Konstantin Grcic: Panorama" is being published in conjunction with the largest solo exhibition on Grcic to date. It constitutes the first catalogue raisonne of the designer's work and documents more than 350 pieces of furniture, products and exhibitions with informative details, images and comprehensive descriptions. This overview is accompanied by numerous illustrated essays from renowned authors, including Peter Sloterdijk, Richard Sennett, Paola Antonelli, Jonathan Olivares, Mario Carpo, Louise Schouwenberg, Jan Boelen, Janna Lipsky and Mateo Kries. While some essays investigate Grcic's oeuvre and its context, others address broader issues that shape Grcic's work, such as new production technologies, the evolution of the home or the development of public space. The book is further augmented by a series of images depicting visionary spatial designs by Grcic produced especially for the exhibition, demonstrating his conceptions of life in the future. All these facets combine to make the book a unique panorama of a designer whose contemporary influence is widely felt, as well as a fascinating read for all those with an interest in the future of design.

Artificial light has revolutionized our environment like almost no other medium. Today, we are experiencing a profound change in the world of artificial light, with as yet unforeseeable consequences for people's lives. "Lightopia" presents icons and examples of lighting design, setting them in a broader cultural and historical context. The publication comprises three separate books in a slipcase. In volume 1, renowned authors take a close look at the cultural history of light in a number of essays dealing with topics as diverse as the scenographic significance of light or its psychological aspects. Volume 2 presents a selection of the 100 most important luminaires from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum - dating from 1900 to today - and includes texts on the development of lighting design. In volume 3, interviews with well-known lighting designers and artists explore how new illumination technologies revolutionize the creative use of light today. With its three volumes, "Lightopia" constitutes a unique compendium of lighting design. It is opulently illustrated and encompasses an exceptional spectrum of examples from design, art and architecture; with works by Olafur Eliasson, Gino Sarfatti, Ingo Maurer, mischer'traxler, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Richard Sapper, Achille Castiglioni, Ulrike Brandi, Pieke Bergmans and many others.

Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine investigates how robotics is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives. The exhibition shows that design in its traditional function as a mediator is indispensable if robots are to become a visible reality and not just remain hidden in washing machines, cars and cash machines. The catalogue points out where we already encounter these intelligent machines and where we may come across them in the near future: in the industry, in the military and in everyday settings; at nurseries and retirement homes; in our bodies and in the cloud; when shopping and having sex; in video games and, of course, in film and literature. In a series of in-depth essays and interviews, experts such as science-fiction author Bruce Sterling or the design duo Dunne & Raby explore the question of how we deal with an environment that is rapidly becoming more digital, smarter and more autonomous. They highlight our often ambivalent relationship to new technologies and discuss the opportunities and challenges that present themselves to us as individuals and as a society in this context. In this regard, Hello, Robot. broadens the scope of the discussion to include the ethical and political questions with which we are faced today in the light of technological advances in robotics, while confronting us with the contradictions that are often found in the answers to these questions. Authors and interviewees: Bruce Sterling, Fiona Raby, Anthony Dunne, Gesche Joost, Carlo Ratti, Amelie Klein and others.

The Vitra Design Museum Collection is one of the most important design collections in the world. It totals around 20,000 items, including 7,000 pieces of furniture, over 1,000 lighting objects and archives and estates from designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. In summer 2016, the museum opened a building by architects Herzog & de Meuron to permanently present this collection: the Vitra Schaudepot. The centerpiece of the Schaudepot is a permanent exhibition of more than 400 key objects of modern furniture design from 1800 to the present. This presentation is complemented by smaller temporary exhibitions on themes related to the collection, a material library and an extensive digital catalogue. The Schaudepot constitutes the largest permanent exhibition on modern furniture design and at the same time a `transparent design museum', making visible the work of the museum in all its facets. The publication sheds light on different aspects of the Schaudepot. The iconic building is illustrated in largescale photographs and drawings. The presentation of the collection in the interior is likewise shown using insightful imagery, augmented by a chronological overview of the exhibited objects. Short essays embed the objects within the context of design history and bring to light the curatorial decision-making behind the presented objects. The book is an attractive field guide through the history of furniture design and act as a portal to understand the Vitra Design Museum's unique collection - at the same time being the publication on one of the latest buildings by star architects Herzog & de Meuron.