Aurélie Blanchard makes over the canteen in Gehry’s Vitra Factory Building

A factory hall is one of Frank Gehry’s three contributions to the Vitra Campus at Weil am Rhein in Germany. All of the chairs are black, helping to tie together the different styles while also   contrasting with the oak tabletops. «The brief was to bring to the existing canteen space the domesticity one would find in a proper restaurant while respecting the industrial and communal character of the room,» said   Blanchard, whose past projects   include a copper-lined Basel restaurant. Aurélie Blanchard is now   working on some of the other spaces in   the building, which contains offices, production rooms, a showroom and a test centre. Photography is by Mark Niedermann. Vitra’s   Corniches shelves create a space for plants along the walls, which have been painted in a subtle shade of green, and   low-hanging bell-shaped pendant lights – designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in the 1930s – contrast with the industrial   lighting above. Most of the space   is taken up by a series of long canteen tables that span the   whole width. Twenty-five years after its completion, Swiss architect Aurélie Blanchard has revamped the building’s   canteen (+ slideshow). Canadian   architect Frank Gehry completed the Factory Building for Vitra in 1989   – the same time as the   celebrated Vitra Design Museum and the smaller   Vitra Design Museum Gallery   –   at the campus that has now become a popular tourist attraction for the brand. Beside these, the architect has added a variety of different Vitra chairs that vary from   Charles and Ray Eames’   DSW Chair to the Basel Chair   by Jasper Morrison and   Ronan and   Erwan Bouroullec’s plant-inspired Vegetal. Other recent additions to Vitra’s famous campus include a   fictitious home by Studioilse, a micro-home by Renzo Piano and a combined viewing tower and helter skelter by artist Carsten Höller. Related story: Studioilse designs home for fictitious couple using Vitra and Artek furnitureSwiss architect Aurélie Blanchard was this year commissioned to restyle some of the building’s interiors, starting with the canteen.