The 12 best design museums in the world
The Eames chair, the iPhone, a corset, Adidas trainers, Tupperware, a tomb, a road sign, a roof tile from the Ming Dynasty, ancient Roman armour: design museums around the world contain hundreds of thousands of significant objects that have shaped global society. They offer a voyeuristic insight to the past and predict where we might go in the future. Objects show the styles of the time, where a wallpaper from 1960s London or a hair ornament from the Nilgiri Mountains paints a detailed picture of the tastes and practices of the time. From furniture to architecture, sculpture to fashion, everything we use is just so for a reason: it's been designed.
Design museums are a brilliant starting point when visiting a new city, as they tend to be rooted in the place specifically and will give you a sense of the aesthetics of a place. The museums also often foster the creative environments of their locale, with scholarships, residencies and workshops. They also have a focus on restoration and preservation, so we have them to thank for maintaining some of the world's greatest treasures.
The buildings themselves also tend to be quite special, whether a purpose-built state-of-the-art sculptural structure, or a former private home. From Milan to Mexico City, why not make a design museum the first point of call for your next city break?
1/12Design Museum - London
Originally opened in 1989 in a former banana warehouse, London welcomed back the design museum to its brand new Kensington location in 2016. Now dubbed the 'world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form', the current building's jutting form was designed by the architect Sir Terence Conran. Featuring exhibitions on the past, present and future of design, as well as talks and workshops, uniquely the museum also offers a Master's programme in Curating Contemporary Design.
2/12Vitra Design Museum - Weil am Rhein
‘Transform! Designing the Future of Energy’ is currently displayed at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. The museum is part of current discussions on design, and its relationship to everyday culture. Its striking white form mixes helical and sharp structures to cut a dramatic figure amongst the green lawns of Weil am Rhein.
3/12Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum - NYC
Cooper Hewitt hosts The National Design Awards, an initiative launched in the 2000s as an ‘official project of the White House Millennium Council.' Unlike many of its cutting-edge contemporaries, this design museum is housed in a mansion house, the former private home of industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie. Exhibitions cover all things design, including ‘The Language of Symbols’ and ‘Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics.’
4/12Red Dot Design Museum - Singapore
With a backdrop of an old coal mine, The Red Dot Design Museum combines a traditional industrial setting with the innovative, stylish and practical objects on display. A major contributor to Singapore's art and design scene, the Red Dot Design Museum is a physical manifestation of the prestigious international Red Dot Design Awards.
5/12Mexican Museum of Design - Mexico City
A popular spot for creatives, the Mexican Museum of Design has a specialised shop for design-focused objects and books. The project was designed by Álvaro García Rego, to celebrate Mexican industrial and graphic design, with specialist sections on toys, interiors, fashion and more. Real design heads visiting the culturally rich city can opt to stay in one of the museum's six suites spread throughout the 400-year-old building.
6/12Victoria & Albert Museum - London
Since its inception in 1852, the V&A - the largest museum of decorative arts & design in the world - has intended to exemplify the ‘best of contemporary architecture and design’. Their ‘Design 1900 - Now’ collection showcases hundreds of examples of the world's best-designed quotidian objects that changed the way we live, from the iPhones of the 2000s, to Tupperware in the 1960s and Adidas trainers made from illegal fishing nets in 2015. They're also famous for their fashion exhibition, having hostel the Chanel ‘Fashion Manifesto’ at the end of 2023.
7/12Designmuseum Denmark - Copenhagen
Copenhagen is known for its refined taste and aesthetic interest, and Designmuseum manifests this sensibility. The museum first opened its doors in 1890 by the Confederation of Danish Industries, before moving to its current site in one of Copenhagen's finest rococo buildings, a majestic former hospital building, in 1926. The museum today strives to elevate classic Danish design, whilst also inspiring contemporary consumers to be ‘more critical and quality-oriented.’
8/12Triennale Milano - Milan
“The Triennale will be a place of reflection and debate, connected with the contemporary culture in a dynamic way that offers new points of view on topics that lie at the very core of our global society,” said the museum's president Stegano Boeri of their mission to instigate exchanges of thought and practise. It was first opened in 1923 and has always focused on bringing people together through art and design. In the spring of 2024, they will open an exhibition on walking sticks and canes.
9/12The Bauhaus-Archiv - Berlin
Bauhaus movement founder Walter Gropius designed this spectacular museum, which opened on this site in 1979. The museum is a comprehensive history of the Bauhaus movement, historically hosting exhibitions from legends like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Today, it has turned its attention to contemporary questions.
10/12Dongdaemun Design Plaza - Seoul
Architectural icon Zaha Hadid designed this bulbous spectacular to embody the cultural landscape of Seoul, and to act as a cultural hub for the historical district of the city. The vast, undulating building contains an exhibition hall, a conference hall, a design museum, a design lab, an academy hall, a media centre, a seminar room, Dongdaemun History and Culture Park, the designer's lounge, and the design market.
11/12Sir John Soane's Museum
From one extreme to another, the Sir John Soane Museum couldn't be more different to the vast Hadid creation. Nestled in London's historical Lincoln's Inn Fields and full of dark corners and ancient collectables, Sir John Soane's house has been preserved as it would have been in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the neo-classical architect's home remains a cultural pilgrimage for design enthusiasts, displaying an unbelievably rich array of sculptures, architectural models, paintings, antiques and furniture from around the world. For an extra moody activity, why not visit the house at night, where the house whispers with secrets from around the world?
12/12Eames House - Los Angeles
Designed by husband and wife design duo Charles and Ray Eames as their home and studio, the Eames house in the luxurious Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles is now open to the public. “Just as a good host tries to anticipate the needs of his guest, so a good architect or a designer or a city planner tries to anticipate the needs of those who will live in or use the thing being designed," explained Charles. Today the house, two glass and steel boxes buried by trees and foliage, is open to the public. The house is full of furniture classics designed by the Eames Office, like the staple of mid-century furniture: the Eames chair.
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