Vitra Design Museum’s fascinating new exhibition explores one of our favourite subjects: the interplay between science fiction and design. And the best part? We’re offering complimentary tickets for you to immerse yourself in this experience, complete with guided tours and the chance to win the incredible 1000-page book the Atlas of Furniture Design.

From Star Trek to 2001: A Space Odyssey to Blade Runner, science fiction films are populated by spacecraft, interiors, furniture and decor that have shaped our vision of the future. In turn, many interior and furniture designers seek inspiration from the sci-fi genre. This ongoing dialogue is the subject of Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse currently on display in the Vitra Schaudepot, at the Vitra Design Museum (in Weil am Rhein, Germany – located near the tripoint of Switzerland and France).

This exhibition plays out like several Film and Furniture articles transposed into one 3D adventure (in fact, F&F’s Paula Benson was asked to collaborate in it’s fruition at one point). It brings together over 100 objects from the Vitra Museum’s extraordinary collection in a display created by the Argentine visual artist and designer Andrés Reisinger.

Supplemented by selected works from film and literature, the show presents a range of examples from the early twentieth century to the Space Age of the 1960s and ’70s, and to recent design objects that have been conceived exclusively for the virtual worlds of the metaverse.

From the futuristic imaginings of science fictions writers Mary Shelley and Jules Verne, which were born from the sudden rise of technology during the Industrial Age, to the pioneering cinematic work of Georges Meliès with A Trip to the Moon (1902) and William Cameron Menzies with Things to Come (1936), the display explores the early evolution of science fiction and how visionary designers of the Space Age, including Gae Aulenti, Eero Aarnio, Joe Colombo and Verner Panton, translated the aesthetics of space exploration into tangible forms, influencing both our living spaces and the silver screen.

Finding inspiration in the technology of space travel, and employing newly available materials and manufacturing processes, Space Age designers were sought by film directors and production designers looking for furnishings for their science fiction movies: Olivier Mourgue’s low slung Djinn seating series in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) being a classic example.

We still look back to the Space Age to (consciously or subconsciously) inform the science fiction of more recent times: Take Eero Aarnio’s Tomato Chair in Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black (1997) or Pierre Paulin’s Ribbon Chair in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

Contemporary films sometimes look back even farther to embody futuristic representations like Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Argyle Chair (1897) in Blade Runner (1982).

Current space exploration efforts have ignited talk of a Second Space Age, raising questions about how science fiction and design are developing and how they might look like in the future. Then there’s also the metaverse, a new space for experimentation, free thinking and new ideas. This is represented in the exhibition through work by Andrés Reisinger who creates for both the physical realm and the metaverse, and whose digital artworks often feature furniture and reference early science fiction films.

 

Visit the exhibition and take a guided tour of the Vitra campus for free!

Excitingly, Film and Furniture have partnered with the Vitra Museum to offer you an exclusive opportunity. We’re giving away four pairs of tickets (valued at 70 euros per pair) for you and your chosen guest to experience the exhibition Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse, along with access to all exhibitions at the Vitra Design Museum and guided tours of the iconic Vitra Campus.

Don’t miss this chance to explore the exhibition alongside architectural wonders by Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, and more at any time of your choosing before May next year (2025).

To enter: Head over to our Instagram post, follow Film and Furniture and the Vitra Design Museum, and simply tag the person you’d like to accompany you to the exhibition and Vitra Campus tour in the comments.
(see competition rules below)

For Film and Furniture paid members, there’s an additional treat in store!

Front Row and Backstage members can enter for a chance to win our deluxe package worth £230 including a pair of exhibition tickets, a guided tour of the Vitra Campus, plus the exquisite Atlas of Furniture Design book courtesy of the Vitra Design Museum shop.

Join us on this extraordinary journey into the past, present and future of design. Become a paid member today for your chance to win!
(Paid Members will be informed of the exclusive members competition by email).

The Atlas of Furniture Design is 1,000-page book that delivers one of the most comprehensive overviews on the history of furniture design ever published. The project involved a team of over 70 authors and features roughly 2,595 images, from high-quality object photographs to reproductions of historical documents such as brochures, patents, interiors or reference works in art or architecture.

Furniture from design legends such as Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Alexander Girard, George Nelson, Le Corbusier, Gerrit Rietveld, Charlotte Perriand, Marcel Breuer, Finn Juhl, Gilbert Rohde, Pierre Paulin, Philippe Starck, Marcel Wanders and Konstantin Grcic are all in there!

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Open Competition prize and rules
Prize: Win one of four pairs of tickets allowing access to the Science Fiction exhibition, other exhibitions at the Vitra Design Museum and guided tour of the Vitra Campus, Germany which can be redeemed any time until May 2025.
Prize does not include transport or accommodation.
No cash alternative will be offered.
Winners will be selected at random and notified by DM.
Competition closes 17:00 Sunday 16 June, 2024