Over a decade and £83 million in the making, the stunning new Design Museum has finally crossed town, from its home of 27 years in Shad Thames, to the newly renovated, super slick Commonwealth Institute on High Street Kensington.
We are delighted that the world’s leading museum dedicated to contemporary design in every form, is now in the same neighborhood as the Royal College of Art, the V&A museum, the Serpentine Galleries, Chelsea Design Centre and of course Juliettes Interiors.
The primary reason for the monumental move was to increase exhibition space, and this has been stylishly achieved by John Pawson and his team. The new Design Museum has triple the floor space of the old museum, and now houses two temporary exhibition spaces, a permanent (free entry) collection display, an auditorium, library, archive, learning zones, designer in residence studio, two fabulous gift shops, a funky café and an elegant restaurant overlooking Holland Park.
It is hoped the new museum will bring in an extra 400,000 visitors per year and we think it will, the striking ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’ roof alone is worth a visit.
The Permanent Exhibition – DESIGNER MAKER USER
This exhibition features almost 1000 items of twentieth and twenty-first century design viewed through the angles of the designer, manufacturer and user, including a crowdsourced wall. Covering a broad range of design disciplines, from architecture and engineering, to the digital world, fashion, furniture and graphics.
Designer Maker User features a bright, colourful and engaging display designed by Studio Myerscough, with digital interactives by Studio Kin.
Other Exhibitions We Like:
NEW OLD
2 JANUARY 2017 – 19 FEBRUARY 2017
This pop up exhibition explores the potential for design and designers to enhance the experience of our later lives.
As our population ages rapidly, this exhibition looks at how design can help people lead fuller, healthier and more rewarding lives into old age, asking the question: how can designers meet the challenge of a rapidly ageing society?
From robotic clothing to driverless cars, this exhibition rethinks design approaches to ageing.
CALIFORNIA
24 MAY 2017 – 15 OCTOBER 2017
This ambitious survey brings together political posters, personal computers and self-driving cars but also looks beyond hardware to explore how user interface designers in the Bay Area are shaping some of our most common daily experiences. The exhibition reveals how this culture of design and technology has made us all Californians.
BREATHING COLOUR, by Hella Congeries
28 JUNE 2017 –24 SEPTEMBER 2017
We see the world in colour but rarely do we appreciate how colour shapes what we see. Drawing on years of research, designer Hella Jongerius presents Breathing Colour; an installation-based exhibition that takes a deeper look at the way colour behaves, exploring shapes, materials, shadows and reflections. Through a series of phenomenological studies and experiences, the exhibition will make us question one of the most elemental aspects of design.
