New art objects at the Vitra Campus: Blockhaus, Ring and Ruisseau

Three new objects – Blockhaus by the noted German artist Thomas Schütte, and Ring and Ruisseau by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec – can now be admired at the Vitra Campus, where the Swiss furniture manufacturer has turned its production grounds in the border town of Weil am Rhein into an open-air museum of contemporary architecture. These days both the Vitra Campus and the Vitra Design Museum are a popular destination for tourists from all over the world.

Blockhaus by Thomas Schütte is a shelter containing a water fountain, and has a slightly irregular footprint. Its outer walls are angled outwards, and the funnel-shaped volume is topped by an irregularly formed roof. Unlike the other art and design objects on the Campus, Blockhaus has come about as the result of a direct enquiry made by Rolf Fehlbaum, Vita's former chairman, after seeing a 1:10 model of Schütte's art object in a Düsseldorf art gallery.

Ring and Ruisseau – the objects by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec – represent the interaction of the urban and natural landscape.  Ruisseau is a long water channel let into marble, while Ring – a stainless steel bench -encircles a cherry tree. These two objects in the public part of the Vitra Campus express the poetic character of landscape elements in urban surroundings and as such refer to the varied relationship between man and nature.