Kazuo Shinohara's Umbrella House Rebuilt at Vitra Campus

The Umbrella House, a 1961 masterpiece by Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara, was saved from demolition and reconstructed at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. In 2020, when demolition was announced, architect Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA contacted Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum, who facilitated the dismantling and reconstruction. The project began in autumn 2021 and concluded in late spring 2022. The 55-square-meter house, originally in Tokyo's Nerima district, features a kitchen-living area, bathroom, and tatami room with sliding partitions. It is the smallest and last surviving work from Shinohara's "First style," referencing Buddhist temple roofs while rejecting nostalgic architecture. The structure uses cedar, pine, and Douglas fir. The house now sits near Buckminster Fuller's dome and Jean Prouvé's Petrol Station, becoming the third historic building saved at the campus. The Vitra Campus also includes works by Zaha Hadid, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando, and SANAA. Guided tours titled "Japanese Architecture on the Vitra Campus" run until June 19. Shinohara, who died in 2006, was a major 20th-century Japanese architect alongside Kenzo Tange. He studied mathematics before architecture at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, graduating in 1953. In 2010, he was posthumously awarded the Golden Lion at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale.