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Vitra Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando

Vitra Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando

Birgit Schlosser
October 6, 2019
1 Comment

Architectural photography project of one of Ando's buildings in Germany. This one is based in Weil am Rhein as part of the Vitra Campus, which is well-known for its furniture. The area of the Vitra Campus was in its original use an orchard. The builder chose Tadao Ando as architect for the pavilion because of the Japanese sense for nature and with the hope that the fruit meadow can be preserved as far as possible.



The conference pavilion for the Vitra Campus is Tadao Ando's first building outside Japan and was completed in 1993. The main part of this minimalist building is below ground level. Tadao Ando wanted to and should integrate his pavilion harmoniously into the cherry tree meadow, which had grown for decades, with the aim of cutting as few trees as possible. To do this, he took aerial photographs and turned the building plan around so that only 3 trees had to be pruned at the end. An impressive example of cautious architecture in harmony with nature.


I use a Canon DSLR 5D Mark III for my architectural photography projects with a wide angle object. Normally I also use a tripod but in this special case it was not possible, because the building can only be visited as part of a guided tour and therefore there was no time for using a tripodand. Further I use Camera Raw, Photoshop and Lightroom for post-production.






I can recommend the architectural tour of the Vitra Campus to anyone planning a visit. You will learn interesting things about the several buildings on the campus, for which besides Tadao Ando other renowned architects such as Zaha Hadid, Frank O. Gehry or Herzog & de Meuron are responsible.

Birgit Schlosser

Birgit Schlosser is a graphic designer and photographer, focusing mainly on architecture, landscapes/nature and urban living spaces.

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