The second coming: how Vitra extends product life cycles

I offer the following not as scientific fact, but rather as a personal anecdote from years of working in this business.

When you’re in conversation with others about design manufacturing, more often than not one brand name in particular is mentioned by way of example of what premium, aspirational design production looks like: Vitra.

Why is this? For sure, the Swiss family-owned company’s savvy acquisition over the decades of licences to produce some of the most totemic designs of the 20th-century furniture and lighting landscape – from Charles & Ray Eames’s Lounge Chair and DAW Plastic Armchair, as well as their Soft Pad Group and Aluminium Group, through Verner Panton 's eponymous single-mould chair, to Isamu Noguchi’s Coffee Table and Akari lamp family, and Jean Prouvé’s Standard chair and Fauteils – speaks not only to the company’s clarity of curatorial vision, but also to its desire to act as a kind of custodian of design culture.

The latter is undoubtedly identifiable in its Weil am Rhein campus, with buildings authored by the likes of Zaha Hadid , Tadao Ando , Alvaro Siza and SANAA, and its credentials further burnished by its 1989 Frank Gehry design museum, its 2016 Herzog and de Meuron Schaudepot exhibition space, and a comprehensive book publishing programme.

Add to this its judicious product-design collaborations with contemporary talents such as Barber & Osgerby , Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Konstantin Grcic.

Impressive stuff by anyone’s standards. But Vitra is certainly not in the habit of resting on its laurels. There’s a future-facing commitment to sustainability and circularity there, too – one which goes beyond its production of long-life furniture and lighting that eschews the vagaries of fashion and therefore aesthetic obsolescence, or the use, where possible, of recycled materials in particular designs.

The brand’s Vitra Circle for Contract initiative takes this commitment a step further. Launched as a platform for business customers, it offers used and reconditioned Vitra furniture for offices and public spaces, closing the loop on the life of each product. It is, in essence, circularity in action, entering a second life cycle, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90% when compared with new furniture, and offering clients a tangible way to align their projects with sustainability and corporate responsibility goals.

'We started in 2018 with the Circle Stores, which are aimed at private customers,’ explains Vitra’s Head of Circularity Rolf Keller, ‘but decided to expand this to the contract market. The products are often the same, but in much larger quantities. From a business and ecological perspective, it makes sense for us to participate in this kind of resale.’

What does the process look like? In short, each product in the Circle for Contract programme is inspected and, where required, reconditioned according to strict internal quality standards. Clients receive a Vitra Circle warranty, with refurbishment including repair, replacement of parts, polishing and reupholstery. This guarantees both durability and flexibility in high-use environments.

For architects, planners and interior designers, meanwhile, Circle for Contract offers a way to specify furniture that is high-quality, aesthetically robust and environmentally responsible. For larger projects, Vitra can even calculate the material-based carbon footprint of refurbished products, helping clients demonstrate progress toward ESG or sustainability targets. As Keller explains: 'Much of a product’s carbon footprint is embedded in its materials. By prolonging the use of a product or giving it a second life cycle, you ultimately avoid the need for new production and the associated utilisation of materials.'

The circularity chief notes, however, that adoption still requires somewhat of a mindset shift, although this is already underway: 'While Circle for Contract is operating at scale and more customers recognise that circular products are by no means a compromise, the broader contract market’s experience with circular solutions remains uneven. This is partly driven by lingering assumptions that circular products fall short on durability, hygiene or design flexibility compared with new alternatives.’

That said, Keller sees additional – and welcome – regulatory tailwinds on the horizon: ‘At least in European markets, we are seeing developments that increasingly favour circular products in public tenders. And as awareness continues to grow, it is becoming clear that circular furniture is not a compromise at all – it performs and looks just as good as new.’

The Eameses would have, no doubt, approved.

© Architonic