This is the famous modern furniture manufacturer-made even more famous because of the world-class architecture on its beautiful premises. It is actually over the German border-take the Bus 55 from Clareplatz (try to bring German marks with you, or else the driver may not have change, or worse, you lose in exchange rates if you pay in swiss francs and get change in marks. This happened to me so please learn from my mistake!). There is a tour at 2pm, in German but the guide will give English explanations.
There is architecture by Frank Gehry (the architect of the moment who built the Guggenheim at Bilbao), Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando (this was his first building outside of Japan.) and Nicholas Grimshaw. It is on beautiful green open-wide fields with hills in the background. If not for the design, come for the beauty of the outdoors. As a bonus, there is a world-renowned exhibition in the Zaha Hadid Fire House (no longer used as such) called '100 Chairs' as well as changing design exhibits at the main museum. Note that the Fire House is only opened to the tour group. Also, if you are in New York from now until February 4, 2001, key pieces of furniture from the Vitra Museum are on display in an exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum. It's on the Upper East Side at 2, East 91st Street, website: www.si.edu/ndm. Can you imagine my surprise when I found that out? Flying home from thousands of miles away and there is an exhibit in my own backyard???