The Design Museum in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London, England, exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the

European Museum of the Year Award The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) is presented each year by the European Museum Forum (European Museum Forum, EMF) under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The EMYA is considered the most important annual award in the European mus ...

. The museum operates as a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

, and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in curating new exhibitions.

History

The museum was founded in 1989 by

Sir Terence Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was a British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989. The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran "mo ...

, with

Stephen Bayley Stephen Paul Bayley (born 13 October 1951) is a Welsh writer and critic, known particularly for his commentary on architecture and design. He was founding CEO of the Design Museum in London in 1989, and has been a regular architecture, art and ...

as inaugural

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, after the two men had collaboratively created the highly successful exhibition space known as The Boilerhouse at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

(V&A).

Shad Thames site

The museum was originally housed in a former 1940s banana warehouse on the south bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in the

Shad Thames Shad Thames is a historic riverside street next to Tower Bridge in Bermondsey, London, England, and is also an informal name for the surrounding area. In the 19th century, the street included the largest warehouse complex in London. Location S ...

area of London. The conversion of this warehouse altered it beyond recognition, to resemble a building in the International

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

style of the 1930s. This was funded by many companies, designers and benefactors. The museum was principally designed by the Conran group, with exhibitions over two floors, and a "Design Museum Tank" exhibition space out by the waterfront. A large scale sculpture titled ''The Head of Invention'' by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was installed in the area between the museum and the Thames.

Kensington site

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 which formerly housed the

Commonwealth Institute The Commonwealth Education Trust was a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational pr ...

in west London. This landmark from the 1960s, a Grade II* listed building, designed by

Robert Matthew Sir Robert Hogg Matthew (12 December 1906 – 2 June 1975) was a Scottish architect and a leading proponent of modernism. Early life and studies Robert Matthew was the son of John Fraser Matthew (1875–1955) (also an architect, and the pa ...

/ Sir Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners architects that had stood vacant for over a decade, was developed by a design team led by

John Pawson John Ward Pawson , (born 1949, Halifax, England) is a British autodidact designer whose work is known for its minimalist aesthetic. Biography Pawson was born and brought up in Halifax, Yorkshire, the youngest of five children. Coming from a w ...

. Fit-out of the Design Museum's new home was carried out by

Willmott Dixon Willmott Dixon is a British privately owned contracting, residential development and property support business. History The company was founded at Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire by a bricklayer, John Willmott, in 1852. During the second half ...

Interiors. The Design Museum opened in its Kensington location on 24 November 2016. The move gave the museum three times more space than in its previous location at Shad Thames, with the new

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Tyrol. It was founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business, which primarily produces crystal glas ...

Foundation Centre for Learning, 202-seat Bakala Auditorium and a dedicated gallery to display its permanent collection, accessible free of charge. The new building was the subject of a profile on the

Sky Arts Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, films, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...

programme ''

The Art of Architecture "The Art of Architecture" is a British factual documentary series broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky Arts. It aired a first series in 2019, a second in 2021, and a third in 2022, as well as two specials in 2020. Each of its episodes makes a s ...

'' in 2019. The move brought the museum into Kensington's cultural quarter, joining the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, V&A,

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

and

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...

Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sudjic (born 6 September 1952) is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.LSE"Advisory board" retrieved 17 May 2013 Life and caree ...

succeeded

Alice Rawsthorn Alice Rawsthorn OBE (born 1958 in Manchester) is a British design critic and author. Her books include ''Design as an Attitude'' (2018) and ''Hello World: Where Design Meets Life'' (2013). She is chair of the board of trustees at the Chisenhale ...

as director of the Design Museum in 2006. In 2016, Alice Black was appointed co-director. In 2019,

Tim Marlow Timothy John Marlow (born 1962) is a British writer, broadcaster and art historian who is the Director and Chief Executive of the Design Museum,Hannah McGivern (October 7, 2019)Tim Marlow leaves Royal Academy of Arts to head London’s Design Mu ...

was appointed as director and chief executive.

Galleries

The top-floor space under the museum roof houses a permanent display, Designer Maker User, with key objects from the museum's collection. A restaurant, members' lounge, residency studio and an events and gallery space are also located on the top floor. On the first floor, a design and architecture reference library is a resource for students, educators, researchers and designers. It also includes archive material relating to the history of the museum. The Swarovski Foundation Centre for Learning is a suite of learning facilities including a design studio, creative workshop, two seminar rooms and a common room. The Design Museum offices and main reception, a meeting room and a film studio are also located on the first floor. On the ground floor, the largest gallery in the Design Museum showcases a programme of temporary exhibitions. Accessible from both

Kensington High Street Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and part ...

and

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. Colloquially referred to as 'Millionaire's Row', ...

, the atrium acts as an events space. A main staircase from the atrium gives access to all floors and offers views to the first and second floors and the

hyperbolic paraboloid In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry. Every pla ...

roof. A double-height space spanning the two lower levels, Gallery Two hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions dedicated to architecture, fashion, furniture, product and graphic design. The Bakala Auditorium seats 202 people and provide a purpose-designed space for a programme of talks, seminars, debates and public and private events throughout the year. The basement accommodates a collections store, exhibition preparation spaces and a locker area for visitors.

Award schemes

The Design Museum has an award scheme which Brit Insurance sponsored from 2003 until 2011.

Designer of the Year

*2003:

Jony Ive Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British-American designer. He is best known for his work at Apple Inc., where he was senior vice president of industrial design and chief design officer. Ive is the founder of LoveFrom, a crea ...

*2004: Daniel Brown *2005: Hilary Cottam *2006:

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is a British comic book artist and illustrator. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin (writer), Alan Martin and the virtual band Gorillaz, alongside Blur (band), Blur ...

Design of the Year

Designs produced over the previous 12 months worldwide are eligible. A number of design experts are invited to nominate up to five projects each, falling into the seven categories of architecture, transport, graphics, interactive, product, furniture and fashion. Since 2015, there have been six categories: architecture, fashion, graphics, digital, product and transport.

Beazley Beazley is a surname, and may refer to * Charles Raymond Beazley, British historian * Christopher Beazley, British politician * David M. Beazley, American software engineer * John Beazley, British classical scholar * Johnny Beazley, American ba ...

became exhibition sponsor in 2016. *2008 The ' One Laptop Per Child' project, designed by

Yves Béhar Yves Béhar (; born 9 May 1967) is a Swiss-born American designer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm. Béhar is also the co-founder and Chief Creative Office ...

for Fuseproject *2009 Barack Obama poster designed by

Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989, he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campa ...

*2010 Folding Plug designed by Min-Kyu Choi *2011

Plumen Plumen is a designer low energy lighting company based in London, UK. The Plumen 001, their debut product, is a designer low energy Compact fluorescent lamp, compact fluorescent light. The design of the Plumen 001 lightbulb is result of collabo ...

001 lightbulb, designed by Samuel Wilkinson and

Hulger Hulger is a British company that designs electronic equipment. It was formed from Pokia after a trademark dispute with Nokia by Nicolas Roope and Michael-George Hemus. The company founded on the idea of old telephone handsets plugged into cellphon ...

*2012 The

London 2012 Olympic Torch The London 2012 Olympic Torch was carried around the UK for 70 days in the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay, London 2012 Torch Relay, from 19 May to 27 July 2012. Design Designed by British designers BarberOsgerby, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, ...

, designed by

BarberOsgerby Barber Osgerby is a London-based industrial design studio founded in 1996 by British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. Historically named variously Barber Osgerby Associates, BOA, Barber & Osgerby and BarberOsgerby, the practice has been ...

*2013 The website " GOV.UK", designed by the

Government Digital Service The Government Digital Service is a unit of the Government of the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, tasked with transforming the provision of online public services. It was formed in April 2011 by David Camero ...

*2014 The

Heydar Aliyev Center The Heydar Aliyev Center () is a building complex in Baku, Azerbaijan, designed by Zaha Hadid and noted for its distinctive architecture and flowing, curved style that eschews sharp angles. The main contractor, Dia Holdings, is owned by actors ...

in Baku, Azerbaijan designed by architect

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...

*2015 Human-organs-on-Chips designed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh *2020 Teeter-Totter Wall, designed by California-based architects

Ronald Rael Ronald Rael (born 1971) is an American visual artist known for his work in architecture, human rights and environmental advocacy along the U.S.–Mexico border, earthen architecture, and pioneering work in developing materials for 3D printing. ...

and

Virginia San Fratello Virginia San Fratello (born 1971 in Savannah, Georgia) is an American artist known for 3D printing, architecture, and ceramics. She attended North Carolina State University and Columbia University. She collaborates with Ronald Rael under the n ...

References

External links

* {{authority control 1989 establishments in England Art museums and galleries established in 1989 British design Charities based in London Design museums in the United Kingdom Museums in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Art museums and galleries in London Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed museum buildings Industrial design collections