An architectural designer and an artist harnessed the collective power of their design firm to remake a dilapidated mid-century gem into a hillside perch for their family.

The updated 620 Chair Program, designed by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ in 1962, has just been reintroduced to the market at $3,340 per unit.

The 620's base is constructed from precision-engineered birch ply and houses a traditional coil-sprung construction. This in turn is over-laid with a rubberized-coir molding (a mixture of torn coconut husks and natural rubber). The arms and backs are made from warm-pressed sheet-molding compound, a material similar to, but stronger than, fiberglass. Photo courtesy Vitsœ.

The full-grain uncoated leather is available in six colors, including the midnight leather with off-white shell shown here.

Vitsoe teamed up with subterranean neighbors Dashwood Books to host the 620 Reading Room in celebration of the re-engineered Dieter Rams’s classic 620 Chair Programme. The modular chair system was launched by Vitsoe in the early 1960’s and has been updated with a coconut husk and rubber filling.

Meeting Dieter Rams Always engaging, always insightful, and telling about his own personal style vis-a-vis his sartorial choices. (Buy his Nanna Ditzel-designing walking stick of choice here.)

A home near Rye, England, opens onto a deck through a Sunflex door. The living room features a sofa by Terence Woodgate, 620 chairs by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ, and an Oluce Atollo 239 lamp by Vico Magistretti. Pett Level, England Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

A home near Rye, England, opens onto a deck through a Sunflex door. The living room features a sofa by Terence Woodgate, 620 chairs by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ, and an Oluce Atollo 239 lamp by Vico Magistretti. The wood-burning fireplace sits along one wall in the room, with a bright orange flue acting as a sculptural focal point.

The 606 Universal Shelving System, designed in 1960 for Vitsœ by Dieter Rams.

Above the 606 Universal shelving by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ, Molineus displays a Central Asian ikat wedding garment that dates to around 1900. The Gaku floor lamp at left is by Dagmar Mombach and Ingo Maurer.

He worked around existing oak and eucalyptus trees for the new building, and retained the vernacular of an original barn, at right, where Frankel hosts concerts. Check out MVRDV's Balancing Barn.

Braun Analog Watch, $200 from store.dwell.comDieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs designed the piece in the 1970s and it remains popular today. Analog watches might seem like a thing of the past, but as any well-mannered gent will attest, it's much easier and more polite to use one to mind the time instead of stealing glances at an smartphone.

Less but Better, by Dieter Rams (Gestalten, March 2014). This read from Gestalten inventories the unobtrusive product designs of author Dieter Rams and, in doing so, meditates on the power of doing more with less.

A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ dominates one end of the living room.

Dieter Rams at the 606 is 50 exhibition.

The inspiration for iPods, a radio designed by Dieter Rams.

The modules’ steel beams are painted Folkstone 6005 by Sherwin-Williams, while the walls are Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore. Vitsœ shelving by Dieter Rams holds books and curios.

Kingsnorth embeds various fabrics on reclaimed vintage frames creating a surprisingly comfortable cushion.

Shakers are well known for their ladder-back chairs, and this understated, seemingly ageless design is the classic Shaker piece. Its restrained simplicity embodies the discipline of the Shakers themselves—its straight back encouraging good posture, orderliness, and control. Photo courtesy of Skinner, Inc.

606 Universal Shelving designed by Dieter Rams for Vitsœ maximizes space in the media center of the home. The near-Tiffany blue that wraps the door frame is a traditional touch, according to Jurkovič.

Marrying the interior with the outdoors informed the design, as did the concept of subtraction: “If you do it with two, then you can do it with one,” Maniatis says, articulating Roger’s algebra of minimalism. Photo by: Kirk Gittings

The dining room features 1970s leather-and-brass dining chairs and a table concocted from a brass-and-silver base and a custom lacquered top. The cheerful blue paint enlivening the doorway is from Emery & Cie.

Architect Hank Louis worked with Navajo tribe elders to secure a 66-year lease on a half-acre lot in the middle of Bluf, Utah, for Rosie Joe and her children. The facade of their off the grid house is made up of exposed wood, red rammed earth, and glass.

David Easton, a pioneer in the field of rammed-earth construction, developed sturdy blocks made from recycled and waste material and then used them to build a house for himself and his wife, Cynthia Wright, in collaboration with designer Juliet Hsu.

Roger and Mary Downey’s 3,200-square-foot rammed-earth home seems to float next to the forest along the Rio Grande in Corrales, New Mexico. While the home’s design and materials nod to the neighboring adobe farmhouses and agricultural sheds, architect Efthimios Maniatis of Studio eM Design calls them an amalgam of “modern contemporary regionalism,” governed by Roger’s strict mandate for minimalism.

Portable Transistor Radio and Phonograph by Dieter Rams for Braun With a compact, rectilinear body, Rams’s 1959 Functionalist design heralded the now-ubiquitous notion of personal music on-the-go.

T3 pocket radio by Dieter Rams for Braun, 1958

Dieter Rams at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Each chair is individually handcrafted and sculpted using upholstered foam.

This open-concept Amsterdam loft features soaring 15-foot ceilings, an Eames lounge chair and ottoman, and a Jielde light. Throughout the home, Standard Studio architects Wouter Slot and Jurjen van Hulzen favored raw materials, including concrete, oiled oak, and hot-rolled steel, all of which complemented the original space's industrial feel. Tucked smartly underneath the loft, a compact home office features functional built-in shelving and an Eames DSR chair.

Deiter Rams-designed SK 5 phonosuper, perhaps the most iconic audio design in the Braun archives.

Homeowner Susanna prefers a motley set of dining chairs over a coordinated set; that way, guests can pick their favorite when they sit. Photo by: Petra Bindel

Asked to find an ecologically sustainable building solution, blaanc turned to a vernacular building technique that still thrives in certain pockets of rural Portugal, rammed earth.

The iT House offers cross-ventilation through its wide, expansive doors and windows, which naturally help cool down the home's interior temperature. Photo by: Gregg Segal

Braun Mach 2 lighter by Dieter Rams with Florian Seiffert (1971), with case.

Easton and Wright in their dining room. The redwood flooring in the living and dining rooms continues onto the deck.