Design Museum London announces opening date and inaugural show

Date
18 March 2016

The Design museum has announced that it will close the doors at its current site on 30 June and relocate to the former commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street. The new museum, which has been redesigned by architect John Pawson, will open to the public on the 24 November. The new museum will be three times larger than its current location and will include the Swarowski Foundation Centre for Learning, the 194-seat Bakala Auditorium and a dedicated gallery to display its collection which will be free to enter. The permanent display: Designer Maker User will tell the story of contemporary design through these interconnected roles using the museum’s collection.

The first exhibition in Kensington is titled Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World_. “_Fear and Love is about our hopes and doubts and the pace and impact of change,” says the museum. A number of designers have been commissioned to create installations evoking and responding to contemporary design.

The news of the launch date was accompanied by a message from Sir Terence Conran who founded the museum: “If you forced me to pick the single most rewarding achievement in my long design career then I would not hesitate to say founding the Design Museum in London. It was a hugely important moment for design in the UK at the time and for me personally. Since 1989 the museum has always led the way and been the first to show some of the work and inspirations of many of the most important designers and architects on the planet. Today, we are about to move from Shad Thames to new, bigger premises in Kensington, where all our dreams and ambitions to create the best and most important design museum in the world will become a step closer to reality. It will make my long lifetime in design absolutely worthwhile.”

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Owen Pritchard

Owen joined It’s Nice That as Editor in November of 2015 leading and overseeing all editorial content across online, print and the events programme, before leaving in early 2018.

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