London Design Museum: a young museum becomes big

The London Design Museum started its activity in 1982, but only in 1989 a permanent location was found for it in the South Bank that, in those years, was becoming one of the most interesting areas of the city. Now the museum has finally reached its maturity thanks to a new location in Kensington, not far from the museum mile in Cromwell Road and from institutions such as Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum and Natural History Museum.

The collective architectural project wisely combines restoration and new structures. Oma, Aliens and Morrison and Arup curated the exteriors while John Pawson signed the interiors. In the rooms of the Design Museum one can admire the permanent collection that – as is tradition for all the big British museums – is totally free. The first area includes 1000 objects around the theme “Designer Maker User”.

And obviously there will be temporary exhibitions, the first of which is “Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World”. The works exhibited aim at making people reflect on current design, analysed by the keen eye of designers from various fields. How do we imagine our future in relation to objects? Architects, designers and fashion designers suggest possible answers and start a dialogue through installations (designed exactly for the new space) touching issues like consumption, food, sustainability and robotics.

Foto credits Gareth Gardner and Luke Hayes