Vitra

Switzerland

Corporation

Produzent

In 1934, Vitra’s founder Willi Fehlbaum took over the shopfitting company Graeter – which had been established in 1906 in Basel – and managed it together with his wife Erika Fehlbaum. In 1950, they established a subsidiary in Weil am Rhein, Germany, under the name Vitra. Vitra AG was founded in Switzerland in 1953 with the objective of producing small furniture and household appliances. That same year on a visit to the United States, Willi Fehlbaum discovered the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames, whereupon he approached the American manufacturer Herman Miller to obtain the production rights for the European market. Shortly after the licence agreement was finalised in 1957, Fehlbaum began producing the Herman Miller Collection, which also included designs by George Nelson along with the Eames’ furniture. In the years that followed, the pieces were distributed under various company names: in Switzerland first by Contura S.A., later by the Basel-based Herman Miller AG, and in Germany by Fehlbaum GmbH. From 1983 onwards, however, the furniture was exclusively sold under the Vitra label. Vitra also began building up its own furniture portfolio from the late 1960s onwards. In 1967, a plastic chair without back legs went into production after several years in development; designed by Verner Panton, it would become widely known as the Panton Chair. In 1976, the company’s first office chair came on the market: the Vitramat designed by Wolfgang Deisig. At the same time Vitra continued to produce shopfittings, having built facilities for the purpose in Weil am Rhein in the 1950s. Vitra’s headquarters, however, have always been located in Switzerland, first in Basel and now in Birsfelden. Willi and Erika Fehlbaum handed over the company to their sons in 1977; Rolf Fehlbaum took charge of the furniture production section, which was united under the name Vitra, while Raymond Fehlbaum was now responsible for shopfitting services under the name Vitrashop. After a lightning strike in 1981 had caused a major fire that destroyed large parts of the production facilities in Weil am Rhein, new factory halls were swiftly constructed on the basis of designs by Nicholas Grimshaw. In the years that followed, Rolf Fehlbaum commissioned further notable architects to design new buildings for the Vitra Campus. Vitra continued to grow throughout the 1980s, with its main focus being office furniture. Significant contributors in this area were Mario Bellini (from 1984), Antonio Citterio (from 1985), Alberto Meda (from 1996), and Jasper Morrison (from 1989). Parallel to this, the first Vitra Edition was launched in 1987, with experimental designs by Ron Arad, Frank Gehry, Shiro Kuramata, Jasper Morrison, and Ettore Sottsass, among others. From the 2000s onwards, Vitra also started collaborating closely with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, and Hella Jongerius. Vitra Home was established in 2004 as a business unit supplemental to the office range. The Vitra Home Collection includes products by contemporary designers as well as objects from famous twentieth-century designers such as Jean Prouvé, Alexander Girard, Hans Coray. In 2010, the VitraHaus designed by Herzog & de Meuron opened on the Vitra Campus as the Vitra Home Collection’s flagship store. In 2013, the company took over Finnish furniture manufacturer Artek, and in 2014, Nora Fehlbaum assumed the management of the Vitra group, initially sharing the role of CEO with Gilbert Achermann. Apart from its product range, Vitra is also widely known for its innovative corporate culture and communication. The layout of the Vitra Campus, for example, reflects the company’s philosophy of diversity. It is a completely unique ensemble of buildings by eminent contemporary architects such as Tadao Andō, Zaha Hadid, Renzo Piano, Álvaro Siza, and SANAA. This approach is also apparent in Vitra’s various collaborations with graphic designers and photographers, for example Christian Coigny, Pierre Mendell, Tibor Kalman, Irma Boom, Cornel Windlin, and Florian Böhm. The Vitra Design Museum, founded in 1989, has flourished as an independent museum with an international presence. Temporary exhibitions are housed in a building designed by Frank Gehry, while key exhibits from the museum’s collection are presented in the Vitra Schaudepot, which was designed by Herzog & de Meuron and inaugurated in 2016. Brandes, Uta, ed., Rolf Fehlbaum, Vitra. Vom Umgang mit Design, Gegenwart und Ökonomie, Industrie Forum Design Hannover (Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 1991). Kalman, Tibor, Chairman Rolf Fehlbaum (Baden: Lars Müller Publishers, 1997). Kries, Mateo, ed., The Vitra Campus: Architecture, Design, Industry (Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2013). Windlin, Cornel, and Rolf Fehlbaum, eds, Project Vitra: Sites, Products, Authors, Museum, Collections, Signs, Chronology, Glossary (Basel et al.: Birkhäuser, 2008).