The Vitra Design Museum collection in miniature
The Vitra Design Museum's Miniatures Collection includes key objects of international design history from 1850 to the present. Every Vitra miniature matches the original in construction, material and colour. The production techniques were adapted to the requirements of miniaturisation through painstaking development work. Thanks to this faithfulness to the original, a Vitra miniature is not only a collector's item for furniture lovers but also ideal teaching material for universities and design schools. More than 100 models on a 1:6 scale are already available, and the collection continues to grow. All models come packed in a small wooden box with a booklet explaining the design.
Miniaturisation means concentration
The Vitra Design Museum creates three-dimensional, faithful miniature replicas of furniture design classics. Some of these designs, such as Le Corbusier's Chaise Longue or Gerrit Rietveld's Red Blue Chair, are now as well known as the most famous works of art and are sought after by museums and collectors around the world. These Vitra miniatures illustrate what design means and what role it plays in industrial production. The concentrated, clearly arranged world of the miniature shows the stylistic diversity of contemporary design in a fascinating way and offers a special approach to the history of furniture design.
How a Vitra miniature is made
The Vitra Design Museum has one of the most renowned collections of industrial furniture design – from the beginnings of industrial mass production in the mid-19th century, through the designs of functionalist modernism, to the postmodern furniture objects of the present. Its objects provide an ideal basis for developing new miniature furniture. Our model maker measures an original historical design from the museum collection, scales it down precisely to one sixth and documents it. The subsequent phase of testing materials and production techniques takes several months: moulds are built, materials and processes selected, art-historical research on the objects carried out, and finally the production process defined.
