For the fire station, the company hired Zaha Hadid, whom it had been considering for the design of some of its furniture product line.

In 1981, a lightning strike caused a fire at the Vitra Furniture factory in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

In an interview, Vitra director Rolf Fehlbaum described his decision to work with him as influenced by Grimshaw's approach of being similar to product design, comparing him to Charles and Ray Eames.

Starting with the fire station, she also designed the campus boundary walls, an exercise facility, and a bicycle shed.

As mentioned above about the interview with Rolf Fehlbaum, there was an interest in the style of product design, like that of Charles and Ray Eames.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels described Hadid's work with the building: She had somehow found a way to manifest in physical form the seemingly impossible perspectives of floating elements and skewed angles that she had captured in her fantasy [paintings].