Furniture manufacturer Vitra’s grassy headquarters at the meeting point of France, Germany, and Switzerland (just outside Basel) has been an architecture intention since its Frank Gehry–designed museum opened in 1989. There are also architecture by Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando, but the most beautiful sight may be the new showroom and store designed by the Swiss company Herzog & de Meuron. The architects have taken the archetypal pitched-roof house, elongated it, and stacked 12 of them up like fireplace logs. Inside, you can follow winding staircases through the imagination space and look for home furnishings.
1. Herzog & de Meuron’s showroom at VitraHaus, in Weil am Rhein, Germany
2. Andels Hotel, in Lodz, Poland
3. Shweeb, in Rotorua, New Zealand
4. Vanke Center, in Shenzhen, China
5. Souk Waqif, in Doha, Qatar
