Herzog & de Meuron have designed an icon for displaying Vitra's home collection at the company's premises in Weil am Rhein. The longhouses are reminiscent of out-sized Lego building blocks packed up on one another. With their dark outer skin, they form a stark contrast to Frank O. Gehry's white Design Museum opposite. Some of the plane sections project to a breath-taking 15 metres giving rise to a "pile of houses" based on the idea of a private house archetype and the stacking of space. The new building is to encompass showroom, museum and field of experimentation.