Typecasting: An Assembly of Iconic, Forgotten and New Vitra Characters

A new view of Vitra: the social function of furniture and design

For the 2018 iteration of Milan Design Week, Vitra presented Typecasting in a former sports hall in the city’s Brera district. Austrian designer and curator Robert Stadler drew on Vitra’s extensive archives and chose a broad panorama of 200 objects, juxtaposing current products with classics, prototypes, special editions and future visions. The objects were chosen and displayed to emphasize the social function of design. While furniture might be grounded in practical functionality, it can take on narrative and representational meanings: a chair might seem to have a personality or a story as we identify with it and script it into our own personal performances.

By presenting objects as characters, Typecasting signals that it is not just about furniture―it’s also about us and the way we use furniture now. Featuring a broad range of perspectives―from Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, the Bouroullec brothers, Simon Denny, Mark Lee, Jasper Morrison and Alice Rawsthorn, among others―Typecasting documents and extends the exhibition, providing generous photographic documentation of the show and critically investigating how we use design to tell stories about ourselves.