Design Museum
Contemporary design and architecture in a remodelled 1960s landmark in Kensington.
The Design Museum was founded in 1989 by Terence Conran and Stephen Bayley in a converted warehouse at Shad Thames, and moved to Kensington in 2016. It is devoted to contemporary design and architecture in all their forms, from fashion and furniture to graphics, product design and digital technology, and runs a changing programme of major exhibitions alongside free displays.
Its home is the former Commonwealth Institute on the edge of Holland Park, a 1960s listed building famous for its dramatic hyperbolic paraboloid copper roof. The interior was remodelled with a light, timber-lined atrium by John Pawson, while the envelope was restored and adapted by OMA and Allies and Morrison, tripling the space available to the museum.
Highlights
- Soaring copper-clad hyperbolic paraboloid roof
- John Pawson's oak-lined central atrium
- Designer Maker User, the free permanent collection display
- Dwellings, Rehomed birdhouse display in the museum garden
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