Design Museum in London
Design Museum in London,
The Design Museum in Kensington showcases industrial, graphic,
fashion and architectural design, and won the European Museum Award – in 2018.
The museum operates as a registered charity,
and all funds generated from ticket sales help the museum organize new exhibitions.
the date
The Design Museum was founded in 1989 by Sir Terence Conran,
with Stephen Bayley as the inaugural chief executive.
After the two men collaboratively created the highly successful exhibition space known
as The Boilerhouse at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).
Shad Teams website
The museum was originally housed in a former banana warehouse dating
from the 1940s on the south bank of the River Thames in the Shad Thames area of SE1 London.
The conversion of this warehouse has changed it beyond recognition,
resembling a 1930s International Modernist building.
It was funded by numerous companies, designers and philanthropists,
and the museum was designed primarily by the Conran Group.
With exhibitions on two floors, and a “Design Museum Tank” exhibition space on the waterfront. T
A large-scale sculpture entitled Head of Invention
by Sir Edoardo Paolozzi was also installed in the area between the museum and the River Thames.
Kensington location in London
In June 2011, Sir Terence Conran donated £17.5 million to enable the museum
to move in 2016 from the warehouse to a larger site that previously housed the Commonwealth Institute in west London.
This 1960s landmark, a Grade II listed building,
was developed and designed by Robert Matthew/Sir Robert Matthew,
Architects Johnson Marshall & Partners,
which had been vacant for more than a decade, was replaced by a design team led by John Pawson.
The design museum’s new home was also fitted out by Willmott Dixon Interiors.
The Design Museum was opened at its location in Kensington, London, on November 24, 2016.
The move gives the museum three times more space than its previous location in Shad Thames,
with a new Swarovski Foundation Center for Learning, a 202-seat Pacala Hall and a meeting room.
Adding to a dedicated gallery to showcase its permanent collection, which is freely accessible,
the new building was the subject of a profile in Sky Arts’ Architecture program in 2019.
The move brought the museum into Kensington’s cultural quarter, joining the Royal College of Art,
the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum,
the Natural History Museum and the Serpentine Gallery.
Exhibitions
The upstairs space under the museum’s roof contains a permanent display, Designer Maker User, with key items from the museum’s collection.
There is also a restaurant, members lounge, residence studio, and event and exhibition space on the top floor.
On the first floor, there is a design and architecture reference library which is a resource for students,
teachers, researchers and designers.
It will also include archival materials relating to the history of the museum.
The Swarovski Foundation Learning Center is a collection of educational facilities
Including a design studio, creative workshop, two seminar rooms and a common room.
The Design Museum’s offices, main reception,
meeting room and film studio are also located on the first floor.
On the ground floor, the New Design Museum’s largest gallery presents a program of temporary exhibitions.
The lobby is accessible from Kensington High Street and Holland Park, and functions as an events space.
The main staircase from the lobby gives access to all floors and provides views of the first and second floors and the segmental ceiling.
A double-height space spanning the two lower levels,
the second gallery hosts a program of temporary exhibitions dedicated to architecture, fashion, furniture, products and graphic design.
The Pacala Hall seats 202 people and provides a specially designed space for a program of talks,
seminars, debates and public and private events throughout the year.
The basement also contains collection storage, exhibition preparation spaces, and a visitors’ cabinet area.
See More: Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest croquet stadium in the world
