basel weekend: vitrahaus
Best finish writing about our trip to Basel while I can still remember what happened.
My main motivation for going to Basel was so that I could visit The Vitrahaus, a furniture design showroom/museum. J and I are longtime admirers of the furniture, particularly the chairs, that have been produced by some of the designers under the Vitra name. For The Bun's first birthday we bought him the popular Elephant chair by Charles and Ray Eames, and it is a tradition for him to be photographed with the chair at every birthday as a way of charting his growth. We own a couple more chairs from other collections but haven't bought anything new in a while. Chair collecting is not an easy hobby to have!
Picture of the Vitrahaus from their website
Although Vitra is Swiss-owned, the Vitra Campus is actually located five minutes across the German border in a small town called Weil am Rhein. Many of the buildings on the Campus were designed by notable architects like Gehry and Herzog & de Meuron, making it a very interesting place to explore. Each building has its own distinctive look, and various sculptures dot the surrounding lawns. There were free architectural tours for the campus but because they were two hours long, we were advised not to take the children on them because they could get restless and disruptive. It was a pity but I am pretty sure I'll be making a return visit in the next couple of years, especially since the displays in the Vitrahaus are constantly changing.
Anyway, our time spent inside the Vitrahaus more than made up for it. As luck would have it, Bao fell asleep in the stroller just after we arrived, so we could explore each showroom floor in peace and without worrying that Bao would climb all over the furniture and break the decorations. The Bun was occupied with a lollipop that a shopkeeper had given him the day before and was quiet. So J and I had the luxury of walking through each floor slowly, drinking everything in.
Words fail me, really, in describing how beautiful and inspiring each room was. I particularly loved the small details - for example, nestled unobtrusively in a cluster of cacti in their pots, was a tiny gold hedgehog. On a dining table, there was a glass food cover in the shape of a roast turkey, and inside it were two little porcelain bird salt-and-pepper shakers. Very subtle, very witty, very why-didn't-I-think-of-that?
Even though the Vitrahaus is essentially a furniture showroom, you never get the feeling that you're in a store. No price tags, for example, and the sales consultation booths are very unobtrusive. It is a showroom in exactly that sense - a way to showcase how well-designed furniture and art can pull together a room.
One of my favourite shelving displays - these were on opposite walls.
Sated and inspired, we ended up in the cafe for lunch - salad, pesto pasta, and a kid's meal of tomato pasta for The Bun which he shared with his sister after she woke. I was keen on getting a souvenir from the shop opposite the cafe but everything I liked was so pricey - a cushion for example cost €95! I settled for a magnet and some postcards, and the nice cashier gave The Bun a small packet of gummies in the shape of - what else? - a house.
After lunch we let the kids play in the outdoor 'elephant park' (featuring the famed Eames elephants, of course) and then walked across to the Vitra Design Museum. It had an exhibition devoted to furniture designer Konstantin Grcic's work which focused a lot on his philosophies and inspirations, but all this was a bit too much for the children, who were by this time (yes) restless and disruptive. I managed to get my hands on a couple of issues of Apartamento magazine at the museum shop, and after that we left the Campus.
__________________________
Okay I meant to write about the rest of the day but I'm being simultaneously distracted by my Game of Thrones book (Book Three is SO EXCELLENT) and the Switzerland-France World Cup match which is going on now. Everyone in the neighbourhood must be watching it, from the sounds and cheers that are going on. I'll pick this up soon when I have more wits about me.
My main motivation for going to Basel was so that I could visit The Vitrahaus, a furniture design showroom/museum. J and I are longtime admirers of the furniture, particularly the chairs, that have been produced by some of the designers under the Vitra name. For The Bun's first birthday we bought him the popular Elephant chair by Charles and Ray Eames, and it is a tradition for him to be photographed with the chair at every birthday as a way of charting his growth. We own a couple more chairs from other collections but haven't bought anything new in a while. Chair collecting is not an easy hobby to have!
Picture of the Vitrahaus from their website
Although Vitra is Swiss-owned, the Vitra Campus is actually located five minutes across the German border in a small town called Weil am Rhein. Many of the buildings on the Campus were designed by notable architects like Gehry and Herzog & de Meuron, making it a very interesting place to explore. Each building has its own distinctive look, and various sculptures dot the surrounding lawns. There were free architectural tours for the campus but because they were two hours long, we were advised not to take the children on them because they could get restless and disruptive. It was a pity but I am pretty sure I'll be making a return visit in the next couple of years, especially since the displays in the Vitrahaus are constantly changing.
Anyway, our time spent inside the Vitrahaus more than made up for it. As luck would have it, Bao fell asleep in the stroller just after we arrived, so we could explore each showroom floor in peace and without worrying that Bao would climb all over the furniture and break the decorations. The Bun was occupied with a lollipop that a shopkeeper had given him the day before and was quiet. So J and I had the luxury of walking through each floor slowly, drinking everything in.
Words fail me, really, in describing how beautiful and inspiring each room was. I particularly loved the small details - for example, nestled unobtrusively in a cluster of cacti in their pots, was a tiny gold hedgehog. On a dining table, there was a glass food cover in the shape of a roast turkey, and inside it were two little porcelain bird salt-and-pepper shakers. Very subtle, very witty, very why-didn't-I-think-of-that?
Even though the Vitrahaus is essentially a furniture showroom, you never get the feeling that you're in a store. No price tags, for example, and the sales consultation booths are very unobtrusive. It is a showroom in exactly that sense - a way to showcase how well-designed furniture and art can pull together a room.
One of my favourite shelving displays - these were on opposite walls.
Sated and inspired, we ended up in the cafe for lunch - salad, pesto pasta, and a kid's meal of tomato pasta for The Bun which he shared with his sister after she woke. I was keen on getting a souvenir from the shop opposite the cafe but everything I liked was so pricey - a cushion for example cost €95! I settled for a magnet and some postcards, and the nice cashier gave The Bun a small packet of gummies in the shape of - what else? - a house.
After lunch we let the kids play in the outdoor 'elephant park' (featuring the famed Eames elephants, of course) and then walked across to the Vitra Design Museum. It had an exhibition devoted to furniture designer Konstantin Grcic's work which focused a lot on his philosophies and inspirations, but all this was a bit too much for the children, who were by this time (yes) restless and disruptive. I managed to get my hands on a couple of issues of Apartamento magazine at the museum shop, and after that we left the Campus.
__________________________
Okay I meant to write about the rest of the day but I'm being simultaneously distracted by my Game of Thrones book (Book Three is SO EXCELLENT) and the Switzerland-France World Cup match which is going on now. Everyone in the neighbourhood must be watching it, from the sounds and cheers that are going on. I'll pick this up soon when I have more wits about me.