Renowned for its collections of 20th-century design, Switzerland's Vitra Design Museum (www.design-museum.de) is going global - with plans to open satellites in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, and New York over the next couple of years. First stop: a bohemian district on the east side of Berlin. The new Vitra occupies a 1920s transformer station, designed by German industrial architect Hans Heinrich Müller, that could have doubled as a set for Metropolis.
Vitra Berlin opens in July with a retrospective of trippy Danish designer Verner Panton; his organic furnishings and "living environments" will be displayed in a 300-foot-long, wood-floored space that once housed the equipment governing East Berlin's electrical system. But the new museum's greatest treasure may be the former control room, pictured here, now reserved for lectures and receptions. Complete with the original knobs and switches, it's even cooler than Captain Kirk's Bridge: The buttons, at one time, really worked.
ELECTRIC WORD
New Blue Chip
Design Eenterprise
Long-Term Memory
Inner Light
The Cyberspace Agency
Pac-Rat
