Reimagining a commercial interior as a home
Sabine Marcelis’s VitraHaus Loft is an installation on level 4 of the VitraHaus, conceived as an imagined domestic environment rather than a conventional product display. The installation opened on 12 June 2024. Its organising question was practical and personal: how might Marcelis design the space if she lived there? The answer combines selected furniture, customised pieces, colour and works by other artists into a home-like setting.
The loft is arranged as a large open space divided into functional areas. Instead of using walls to distinguish every activity, the installation relies on colour, furniture groupings and layers of objects to suggest how a home might be occupied. That approach also changes how the furniture is encountered: pieces are presented in relation to one another, as parts of a setting for imagined daily life, rather than as isolated catalogue objects.
The result is still a designed display within a commercial building, not a documented account of a household in use. Its domestic character is created through a deliberate composition—one that invites visitors to consider how colour, layout and personal objects can shape the feeling of an interior.
Colour as a way to organise space
Colour provides the loft’s principal zoning system. Each functional area has a base hue that helps make its location legible within the open plan:
| Functional area | Base colour | Role in the composition |
|---|---|---|
| Lounge | Caramel | Gives the area a warm, welcoming character |
| Kitchen | Rusty red | Distinguishes the area for preparation and serving |
| Living room | Green | Introduces a contrasting, fresher note |
| Workspace | Very light yellow | Establishes a lighter visual character for work |
These colours are described as personal favourites rather than a response to an annual colour trend. Marcelis connects them to hues used in her studio work, including mirror and resin projects, and combines warm shades with cooler accents such as green and pink. In this arrangement, colour does more than decorate surfaces: it helps communicate where one activity ends and another begins without relying solely on partitions.
That distinction has a practical implication for open-plan interiors. A continuous space can still read as a collection of different places when colours, furniture and objects establish visual cues. The installation demonstrates one possible approach; it does not establish that colour alone will provide privacy, acoustic separation or clear boundaries in every home. Those requirements depend on the uses and conditions of a particular space.
The palette also reflects a different way of thinking about longevity. Rather than selecting shades because they are currently fashionable, Marcelis describes choosing colours she likes and does not tire of. This is a personal design principle, not a guarantee that a palette will remain appealing to every occupant. Its useful question is whether a colour choice has meaning for the people who will live with it, beyond its momentary popularity.
Modular furniture adapted for domestic life
The installation uses Vitra products as components in a broader spatial composition. Marcelis and the Vitra team selected pieces from the company’s catalogue, combined items of different styles and periods, and customised some elements. Two examples show how arrangement and adaptation can change the perceived role of furniture.
A conversation pit made from a modular sofa
The living-room centrepiece is Jasper Morrison’s Soft Modular Sofa, configured as an enveloping lounge pit. The system is generally arranged in a straight line or an L shape; here, its modules are joined to create a more enclosed place to sit. The configuration makes the seating arrangement itself a kind of informal boundary, giving the living area a distinct centre within the open loft.
A conversation pit can encourage people to gather around a shared seating area, while its lower, inward-facing arrangement can make the room feel more sheltered than a row of sofas. In the VitraHaus Loft, the setting is also intended for visitors to relax, watch projected films and take in views from the building. These are features of the installation’s design intent; they should not be mistaken for evidence about how every visitor uses the space.
Kado Office shelving with more than one role
The Kado Office shelving system was reimagined to function as both wardrobe and bed. The example challenges the assumption that a product’s original category determines all of its possible uses. A storage system designed for an office context can be incorporated into a domestic composition in a different way, provided the adaptation serves the needs of that setting.
This is an example of design-led reuse, not a general instruction to convert office storage into sleeping furniture. The installation materials do not provide technical details about construction, load capacity, safety or the precise configuration. Anyone considering a similar adaptation would need to check the product’s intended use and obtain the relevant product information before relying on it for another function.
Art, textiles and the personal layers of a home
Furniture from Vitra is only one part of the installation. Marcelis also brought in artworks and design elements by people outside the company’s furniture catalogue. These contributions introduce variety and personal associations into a carefully composed interior, rather than making the room feel like a uniform collection of products.
The artists and designers involved include Maria Pratts, Saskia-Noor Van Imhoff, Johnny Mae Hauser and Carlijn Jacobs. The project also includes bedding designed by Berlin-based artist and pattern designer Ehsan Morshed. His use of collage techniques produces unexpected patterns for the sheets, adding a textile layer to the sleeping area. The customised sheets were offered as limited editions through the VitraHaus shop.
The installation’s logic is not simply to add decoration. Artworks and textiles can bring references, histories and associations that differ from those carried by mass-produced furniture. In a domestic interior, this kind of layering can make a room feel connected to its occupants rather than assembled solely to display objects. That interpretation is consistent with the installation’s emphasis on personal meaning, but it remains a design proposition rather than a universal formula for creating a home.
The project also combines catalogue pieces from different eras and styles, along with Artek pieces. Marcelis describes the selection as a balance of old, new, unexpected and iconic elements. Colour helps hold those differences together, while the mix prevents the composition from relying on a single furniture style.
Limited-edition pieces developed from the palette
Two Verner Panton designs were released in limited editions as products associated with the loft’s colour scheme. The editions connected the installation’s palette to individual objects, extending its visual language beyond the room.
Panton Chair Classic
The Panton Chair Classic, designed by Verner Panton in 1959, was offered in a high-gloss finish and in the seven hues used in the VitraHaus Loft. The edition was limited to 50 chairs per colour. The finish and colour range drew attention to how strongly colour can affect the visual character of a familiar chair design.
Visiona Stool
The Visiona Stool, a low cylindrical pouf designed by Panton in 1970, was offered in the same seven hues with different upholstery options. The described range included textures from furry finishes to leather. Its edition was limited to 50 pieces per colour and upholstery material.
Both products were offered for sale at the VitraHaus during Art Basel week and through Vitra’s website. The documented details describe the original limited-edition offer; they do not establish current availability.
The VitraHaus as part of the domestic illusion
The setting contributes to the installation’s meaning. Designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and completed in 2010, the VitraHaus is Vitra’s flagship store for its Home Collection. Its architecture takes the familiar form of a house as a point of departure: elongated gabled volumes are nested within one another and fitted with large windows at their ends.
The building consists of 12 individual house-like forms whose projections extend up to 15 metres over one another. The resulting stack measures 57 metres long, 54 metres wide and 21.3 metres tall. Its outwardly complex arrangement and recognisable house shapes make domestic architecture both a reference and a display structure.
During the day, the windows frame views of the surrounding area. At night, the glass fronts glow like display vitrines. The building therefore already sits between home and showroom: its architecture evokes houses while its function is to present furniture. Marcelis’s loft works within that tension, using a domestic arrangement to make a retail environment feel more like a place to inhabit.
Located on level 4, the installation also connects its lounge setting with views beyond the building. The interior is not sealed off from its context; the landscape becomes part of the experience of sitting in the conversation pit. This relationship reinforces the sense of a lived-in setting while keeping the project visibly situated inside an architectural showcase.
Practical ideas for interpreting the installation at home
The loft offers several ideas that can be adapted as design questions, rather than copied as a fixed template:
- Use colour to clarify an open plan. Consider whether a consistent base colour, or a coordinated group of colours, could help distinguish areas for relaxing, eating or working without building full-height partitions. Colour can guide perception, but it cannot provide the privacy or sound separation of a physical barrier.
- Treat modular furniture as a layout tool. A modular sofa can define a gathering place through its arrangement. Before choosing a configuration, consider how people need to sit, move through the room and access the surrounding areas.
- Ask what an object can do in context. The Kado Office adaptation illustrates how furniture can be reconsidered beyond its usual category. Any change of function should be checked against the product’s specifications and suitability; the installation does not provide technical approval for alternative uses.
- Layer personal objects with functional furniture. Art, textiles and objects with personal associations can make a composed interior feel less generic. The relevant choice is not the number of accessories but whether they contribute meaning, texture or contrast to the space.
- Choose colours for lasting personal appeal. A palette selected for individual preference may feel more enduring to its occupants than one chosen only to follow a trend. That judgement is subjective and can change over time.
Taken together, the installation shows how interior character can emerge from relationships among colour, furniture arrangement, adaptable systems, artworks and architecture. Its most transferable lesson is not a specific product combination, but the way those elements work together to make zones in an open room feel distinct and connected at once.
At a glance
Scope
Editorial reading; this is not a visit or a technical assessment.
Sources and references
VitraHaus Loft | Official Vitra® Online Shop LU ↗22/10/2026 VitraHaus Loft: A conversation with Sabine Marcelis — Details of the design approach, colour zoning, furniture configurations, artistic contributions and limited-edition designs.
VitraHaus | Official Vitra® Website LP ↗22/10/2026 VitraHaus: Herzog & de Meuron, 2010 — The building’s architectural concept, dimensions, structure and role as Vitra’s flagship store.
VitraHaus Loft de Sabine Marcelis | Official Vitra® Online Shop ES ↗22/10/2026 VitraHaus Loft by Sabine Marcelis — Installation information, participating artists and details of the associated editions.