Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors exhibition at Vitra Design Museum

Home interiors are an expression of the way we live, the places where we build our daily habits and which have the greatest impact on our wellbeing. Through captivating narration exploring iconic interiors by prominent architects, interior designers and artists, the exhibition "Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors" takes visitors to the Vitra Design Museum on a path back through time: a voyage in discovery of how the way we live has changed over the past hundred years, how design has moulded it, and how our interiors have evolved with it, against the background of the important social, political, urban and technical upheavals of the past century.
This fascinating voyage looks at themes of relevance today such as energy efficiency and reduction of harmful emissions, the shortage of living space at affordable prices, and the evolution of dwelling linked with the development of new forms of work that reduce the boundaries between spaces for work and for private life: all considerations that have a direct impact on the choice of materials and use of available resources, including optimisation of space with built-in or convertible furniture.
The exhibition moves back in time, beginning with today’s innovative tiny homes and "4D pocket" apartments, such as the "Antivilla" designed by Arno Brandlhuber in 2014 and built near Berlin, in which fabrics become mobile dividers for interior space. The exhibition then goes back in time to look at stylist Karl Lagerfeld, a passionate collector of objects designed by Memphis who transformed his Montecarlo apartment into a postmodern showroom showcasing the studio’s work from the early '80s. Then there is a living loft from the '70s: Andy Warhol’s New York Silver Factory, a paradigmatic example and legendary symbol of the artist’s studio. The exhibition covers the switch from formal to informal living spaces in the '60s and the introduction of home appliances in the 50s, then looks at projects of the '20s and '30s that reinvented the layout and versatility of space in the home. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat in Brno, in the Czech Republic, is an example of one of the first homes based on the open space concept, with fluid spaces in which it is the arrangement of the furniture that creates islands for different uses, while Adolf Loos’s Villa Müller in Prague offers an example of the "Raumplan" concept, with spaces on different levels of different heights.

The exhibition also invites visitors to reflect on contemporary interior design, encouraging dialogue and confrontation that is not limited to those who work in the field. This reflection acknowledges the fact that while there is growing awareness of the importance of the home in public debate, the same cannot be said of interior design, despite its importance for the home’s inhabitants and its importance in the global economy.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Exhibition title: Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors
Curator: Jochen Eisenbrand
Assistant curator: Anna-Mea Hoffmann
Exhibition design Space Caviar
Opening talk and vernissage: 7 February 2020, 6 p.m.
Duration: 8 February – 23 August 2020
Opening hours: daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Location: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany www.design-museum.de
Hashtag: #VDMHomeStories

Captions
01 Lina Bo Bardi, Casa de Vidro, São Paulo, Brazil, 1952 © Nelson Kon, 2002
02 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Villa Tugendhat, Brno, Czech Republic, 1930 © Archive Štenc Praha/ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2020
03 Lina Bo Bardi, Casa de Vidro, São Paulo, Brazil, 1952 © Instituto Bardi / Casa de Vidro, photo: Francisco Albuquerque
04 Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon, Antivilla, Krampnitz, Germany, 2010–15 Courtesy of Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon, photo: Erica Overmeer / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020
05 Noritaka Minami, A504 I (Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, Japan), 2012 © Noritaka Minami
06 elii [oficina de arquitectura], Yojigen Poketto Apartment (kitchenette and sleeping area) Madrid, Spain, 2017 © elii [oficina de arquitectura], photo: Imagen Subliminal – Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero
07 Finn Juhl, Chieftain Chair, 1949 © Vitra Design Museum, photo: Jürgen HANS
08 Marie Jacotey, Granby N48 (drawing of the housing project Granby Four Streets by Assemble, Liverpool, UK, 2013-today), 2016 Courtesy of the artist and Hannah Barry Gallery, London
09 IKEA, Catalogue cover, 1974 © Inter IKEA Systems B.V.
10 Finn Juhl, Situational plan of his house in Ordrup (with planned extension), Denmark, 1968 © Designmuseum Danmark, photo: Pernille Klemp
11 Karl Lagerfeld’s Monte Carlo Apartment (with designs by Memphis), Monaco, 1982 © Jacques Schumacher
12 Verner Panton, Phantasy Landscape at the exhhibition Visiona 2, Cologne, Germany, 1970 © Verner Panton Design AG, Basel
13 Michael Graves, Reinhold Apartment, New York, USA, 1979-81 © Peter Aaron/ OTTO
14 ARP (Atelier de Recherche Plastique), Coquetier Armchair, c. 1954/55 © Vitra Design Museum, photo: Jürgen HANS
15 Josef Frank, Villa Beer, Vienna, Austria, 1929-31 © MAK
16 Nat Finkelstein, Factory Panorama with Andy Warhol, New York City, USA c. 1965 © Nat Finkelstein Estate / All rights reserved

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