The Vitra Design Museum traces these conditions and influences in its new exhibition and presents the high art of reduction as the quintessence of design. Divided into twelve sections grouped under the headings Manufacture, Function, Aesthetics and Ethics, the exhibition puts forth the motifs, motivations and strategies pursued by design in its quest for efficiency. The fact that Vitra Design Museum concentrates on tendencies in furniture design – though by no means exclusively – proves to be a decisive advantage, as furniture supplies this complex theme with particularly vivid arguments as a proxy for everyday culture and our attitude toward the world.