Design Museum

The Design Museum speaks to Matthew Bonner, one of the designers behind the #TrumpBaby blimp. See it fly at Parliament Square Gardens!

'Once we would arrive at our destination, we’d turn on the machine, unzip the cover and simply walk away while an audience would quickly form. I’ve probably said too much.' | http://fal.cn/ygz2

'It was very important to us that the piece felt authentic—true to the real Zoltar machines found in the movie Big, and in places like Coney Island.'
The Design Museum speaks to the design team behind the animatronic fortune-telling Trump machine, on display inside the Hope to Nope exhibition http://fal.cn/yg8p

The Design Museum's #BreathingColour exhibition by @Jongeriuslab is now on tour at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam until 12 August! Explore all exhibitions for hire here: http://fal.cn/ylqO

Member of the Memphis Group, the New York Five and a leader of the postmodern movement, architect and designer, Michael Graves was born on this day in 1934.
The Denver Public Library. Image credit | Summerspot

Architecture Friday on Instagram this month is hosted by the Guardian's architecture and design critic, Olly Wainwright. Olly will be exploring buildings from North Korea to mark his latest publication, "Made in North Korea".
Follow the series every Friday here: https://bit.ly/2lZZcNc

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE | Join Charles Jencks, Edwin Heathcote, Mel Dodd, Sam Jacob, Léa-Catherine Szacka, Brendan Cormier , Owen Hopkins, Elly Ward Morris, Douglas Spencer, Daisy Froud, Sean Griffiths, David Madden, Indy Johar, Alice Bucknell and Deyan Sudjic for a special symposium dedicated to postmodernism tomorrow . Secure your ticket before it's too late! fal.cn/y0Hx
In partnership with Sir John Soane's Museum

French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house @Balmain , Pierre Balmain died on this day in 1982. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dressmaking as "the architecture of movement."

Relax and enjoy the surroundings whilst sitting on the Design Museum's atrium seats, which have been re-upholstered with original materials used in Land Rover vehicles from 1948 - 2018 to mark 70 years of design. Find out more about this special installation: http://fal.cn/y1Y2

Teacher Summer School
Come and join Henry James as he leads three days of designer led talks, making at Imperial College’s Reach Out maker space, and stories from the Museum’s collection.
Speakers include; Alex Newson – Senior Curator at Design Museum, Anna Bullus – Designer and director of Gumdrop and Gumtech, Oliver Sylvester-Bradley – Marketing Manager at Solar Aid, and Gurpal Thiara – DT Lead at Seven Kings School. Teachers at all levels are invited to join Henry and Design Museum staff on the Teacher Summer School for just £150 each. For a timetable and to book please visit; http://fal.cn/ybfG

Q&A | 'If the Occupy George project has taught us one thing, it’s that anyone can be a catalyst for change. We’re just two semi-delusional dudes that followed through on a nutty idea, and we eagerly await the next wave of influential projects, artworks, and movements that will ignite the world' - Ivan Cash and Andy Dao.
http://fal.cn/yWWz

22 September | Start your morning with a 60 minute vinyasa yoga practice hosted by Equinox inside the Design Museum atrium.

14 September | For all you night owls, join urbanist and writer Matthew Beaumont on a nocturnal walking tour to discover the hidden aspects of London.

Did you know | If you join as a Member you can enjoy free, unlimited entry to all exhibitions and other benefits - such as this exclusive evening access to the Design Museum's major exhibitions, Hope to Nope and Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier on 20 July.

4 September | Join architecture historian Owen Hatherley in a talk exploring the condition of contemporary Europe, told through the landscapes of its cities.

1 September | Join architect Chris Hildrey to explore how the built environment creates and provides solutions to homelessness in London.

21 July | Discover tools, tips and techniques for investigative journalism and designing with open data in this half-day workshop.

20 July | Join the research and design studio Metahaven for a talk on graphic design, politics and internet culture.

Design It, Make It, Use It | 'One of the litters I found was a piece of chewing gum and as a designer I was completely amazed there was nothing actually being done to recycle it' - Anna Bullus. See how Anna used design to find a solution.
Learn about the museum's educational outreach programme and find more resources like this for your primary school here: http://fal.cn/yoW9

Wonderful experience, Azzedine Alaia exhibition is amazing, it has been curated with such vision to showcase glorious fashion with exceptional execution of design and technique, well done...

What a beautiful place to spend a few hours. Went with my 10 yr old son and we loved every part of it. Feeling hugely inspired 😍

Visited the Design Museum to see the Ferrari Under the Skin exhibition. Well worth the trip from Inverness! The cars on show are so rare, valuable and beautiful. And there's lots of photos, engine parts, models, drawings, videos. If you like Ferraris then you'll love this exhibition. It's worth the entry fee just to see the vintage cars. I took lots and lots of photos so was there quite a while.

Top floor is full of iconic designs, from Apple, (good) sony(OK), Braun etc, which was very interesting. But where was the Hydraulic reference turntable ("Clockwork Orange"), lecson amplifier or the Sennheiser HD414 yellow foam headphones, all design classics of the 70's ;)

This is a must-see for anyone interested in design, the culture of things, and architecture. The renovation of the former Commonwealth Institute building is a masterwork...and shout-out to Perry on staff who is very knowledgeable and helpful. Lovely lunch at Parabola too.

The Design Museum gives us the possibility of recognise exquisite design on every day objects that surrounds us �

I visited the exhibition ‘Azzedine Alaïa - The Couturier’ and was very impressed by how it was set up: the extremely nice dresses by Alaïa, the screens by various of his designer-friends, the thematic approach with a number of signature works, the booklet with some background reading on each of the themes, the manner in which the dresses were shown (on themselves, no mannequin), the good lighting. I spent a wonderful time away from daily routine of law practice. Warmly recommended!

I visited the Ferrari under the Skin exhibition and thought that it was good value. I learned a bit about the car and the man. I would recommend the exhibition to anyone, car enthusiast or not.

Great! The (permanent?) Maker exhibition on the top floor totally engaging (because the objects are so familiar) and thought provoking while being manageable in size. The venue is great.

Don’t expect to visit for the afternoon, plan for an interesting, enjoyable hour.



The shop prices are silly.

Great place, visited as a family and all agreed! 👌🏼

Gorgeous building and lovely staff. The Azzedine Alaïa Exhibition was amazing!

First visit to the museum and found it nice , open and spacious very friendly and knowledgeable staff . Excellent displays so an all round good experience.

Enjoyed it. Relaxed. Interesting exhibition. Why does this review have to be 40 characters?

Bar none, THE best rendering of industrial and post+industrial era design of any major city o have visited. Comprehensive, accessible and engaging. I learnt so much that design museums in other countries hadn't been able to teach me.

Amazing building and the current exhibitions are great too. Shame the cafe was closed

We had a really stimulating visit we came specially for the Hope to Nope exhibition which was brilliant some beautiful well designed graphics and some fascinating new tech pieces. I would highly recommend and have already done so to my friends.



Like others I have some reservations about the use of space in the building particularly as the permanent collection is in quite a small area whilst there is so much unused space in the atrium which could possibly be used more effectively for more of the collection to be on display.



I will definitely visit again

The Ferrari Exhibition was very good and worth paying for (Strange that people expect these things to be free). The free exhibition on the top floor was good too - like some of the better bits of the science museum, presented in a cooler way. I also liked the large amound of open seating around the building, giving the ability to just loiter and soak up the atmosphere. A couple of hours well spent.

Great building the Ferrari under the skin exhibition was well structured. I think there could be more in the permanent exhibition.

First of all, the building itself is quite interesting. You wouldn’t think it looks like what it is from the outside but once you got in, you will find it has quite a unique layout. And the view from holland park shows its extraordinary roof (which apparently is made of copper and that’s why you won’t get phone signal when you’re inside! .. well, according to the friendly staff who talked to us)



Secondly, the exhibition is amazing too! We went for the Azzedine Alaïa and his couture collection. You will see the absolutely gorgeous handmade dresses which took the artist years to finish. There was no description of each piece though. Alaïa wanted to display them this way. However, there is a timeline showing where he gets the impact and inspiration from.



Lastly, beside the part that the staffs there were very helpful and friendly, the activities there are fun as well. We spent some time drawing our design logo for my family. (Basically you just need to pick one topic and design stuff.) I think it’s something creative which is admittedly beneficial for all ages :)



Definitely worth checking out!!

Fantastic Azzadine Alaia exhibition, loved it! Only gripe is that there should be more headphones in the film section, two were missing from the end screen and it would have made a huge difference. Not that impressed with Parabola cafe, food over-rich and expensive. But the view is to die for :-)

What a beautiful building. Sadly it seems underutilized for the Design Museum. Only a small section is devoted to the free exhibition area. These displays are fine, some very good, but it is rather too busy and cramped. We felt it was rather themeless and contents were not well related to the excellent chronology wall at the entrance to the displays. Disappointed compared with the old place on the south bank.

The best thing about it by far is the building’s interior. It’s amazing, but a triumph of artistry over functionally. So much space is wasted, from a museum point of view, that the unremarkable permanent exhibition occupies a cramped space on

the top floor. We’d have given this two stars, but the Ferrari exhibition made it worth a third - for one of us at least! We visited Copenhagen’s Design Museum in September 2017. This was the exact opposite - an unremarkable building containing a fantastic permanent exhibition. Five stars.

I’d have expected the permanent collection to have grown with the additional space. The exhibitions didn’t appeal this time but I’m sure it’s a broad offering throughout the year. I’d recommend IF you’ve never been before since London Bridge and if there’s a temporary exhibit that is of interest.

I went to the original design museum back in the early nineties as a design student. It was great. I visited the new museum this week and was desperately disappointed. Where are all the exhibits: furniture, ceramics etc that filled the old place and the more challenging design shows? I wrongly assumed a bigger space would create new rooms, galleries etc but no only one floor for product design. ( which was excellent).Its like thr Tate Modern and Pompidou Centre massive building minimum things to show! The V&A have a better display of 20th century design.

I concur with other reviews. I love the old museum at Shad Thames as it was filled with objects at every turn. This building is 3 times, maybe more, bigger and yet there is less on display. The designer;user;maker reminded me of the old museum.

To much wood not enough exhibits. The old place was much more interesting, the new museum is more like a giant waiting room. Ferrari exhibit was good but really worth the money I don’t think so.

This is a lovely building but I was VERY disappointed with the content. I loved the fantastic array of things in the old museum. What happened. There is so much circulation space, and places you can’t get into. The upstairs exhibition isn’t a patch on its predecessor; and the number of times I couldn’t get past people looking at things on both sides of exhibits was annoyingly. What a shame. Coffee and was good but cafe space uninspired. Shop was packed and one could barely move. Presumably because people hungry to discover the design story could find more in the shop than in the exhibition space. Please re-think.

Really disappointed �. Difficult to pull together a coherent exhibition covering “design” and it seems to start and fail on too many subjects. It’s a bit jr science museum and a bit furniture store.... nothing to write home about unfortunately. There’s an interesting quote about function and design on the second floor... shame the curators didn’t heed the words, the building is a rather expensive cube, with 80% of the space fresh air.

Lovely architecture both inside and outside, but exhibits are poorly displayed.

I was excited to be visiting the Design Museum in its new location some months ago (2017) but couldn't have been more disappointed. Since then, perhaps there is more on display but it's the first time I've ever had to go to the information desk in a museum and ask if I'd missed something as there was so little to see. (The reply was no - this is it.) There was a moderately interesting exhibition that we had to pay for - just about worth the money. I'm a very enthusiastic visitor to museums and this was definitely my most disappointing ever. Sorry to be so negative.

I wanted to explore the museum, but most of the space is closed off to the public, it seems like the intention is to create a sense of exclusivity, but it just comes across as cold and empty. What little is on display is tatty and there is not much information around. I just didn't feel like I was welcome to enjoy the space, or informed about what was on offer. A bit boring.

I am a product designer/mechanical engineer. I have to echo the thoughts of many of those below; big disappointment. I'd been putting this visit off for a few years since visiting the great, but small previous museum. I was excited about this huge new home, but wow... all that empty space... I was embarrassed to have to trapse my family up several flights of stairs before seeing anything of significant interest. We passed countless, mostly locked rooms that were either lobbies, lounges, restaurants, offices etc. before reaching the corner of the top floor where the design exhibition was. This exhibition was good, although for a building so great and in a country with such a rich design heritage, it was sparse. One could easily see how the curators had left obvious items out due to lack of space; so many design icons missing. And then there were signs placed at many locations saying "Caution Uneven Flooring" where the floor was made up of slotted wooden panels that were fractured and clearly not fit for purpose. This does not set a very good tone for a design museum. Finally, the 3 part mould exhibit for the Alessi Juicy Salif (lemon squeezer) by Philippe Starck was arranged wrongly; it was as if the parts had been unfolded, to reveal the internal cavity, but the parts were not in the correct relative positions. This would ordinarily not make my review, but I think it is indicative of the need for someone to take a fresh look at this museum. I can't help but feel there are staff at the museum that must be biting their lips when being restricted in their curation. I LOVE design, and I even have a piece (Nokia 3310) in the museum that I contributed to, so I desperately hope someone can get this place up to the level the subject deserves. Please.

A lovely location in Kensington To see the fantastic Ferrari exhibition which was full of history and red blue green and yellow sports cars. A must for all motor heads and design followers

Where to begin? I got a very clinical and cold feeling from this museum. I had taken extra time in my itinerary to visit, and gave it the benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake, as the museum is overpriced and has a very unfriendly atmosphere. I found the displays quite uninspiring and noticed several mistakes in the information sections. The museum doesn't seem to have decided what it wants to be, or what message it is aiming to deliver, its just very dull and has a general lack of enthusiasm for its subject.

We were so disappointed, we wanted to be inspired and excited by this potentially great place, and ended up so bored! We tried to ask the staff for information, as we could see groups of them standing around in corners, wearing distinctive aprons, chatting to each other and/or looking intently at their smart phones. One staff member actually told us to 'hold on a bit' while he finished what he was doing on his phone, and still couldn't really answer our questions! It was actually quite depressing. If we'd wanted a demo on how to stare vacantly at an i-phone we would have just visited our 14 year old nephews! Very bad.

We decided to make the journey to see the Design Museum today, and found it rather confusing upon entry. We did not feel welcome or comfortable inside, and were eventually told to go all the way to the top floor if we didn't have a ticket. Reviews of the rather expensive ticketed exhibitions are not inspiring, so we wandered up stairs. The impression is of the exhibition being an afterthought, or like they ran out of funding half way through. Most of the interesting items on display were things we have in our own house, which was quite surreal, and I guess we could just stay home next time and look at our own things! Staff were not really helpful, and it seemed like a lot of the displays were broken or malfunctioning. Sorry, it was an odd experience.

I was visiting from New York and decided to visit the museum even though it does not have a very high profile in London, and give it a chance. I genuinely regret this decision. The Design Museum has a cheapness about it, like they want you to think its world-class, but its actually quite low-budget and not very innovative. There is an exhibition upstairs that is quite pathetic, with nasty looking displays and little sense of style or insight. I noticed cracks and damage everywhere, and just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Cant recommend it.

I feel that the Design Museum needs some hands-on advice from the public. I asked the charming lady on the door if there were any feed-back forms, but they appear to be hidden away somewhere. On the whole I found the general layout bewildering and lacking, yes, design. What really stunned my friend and I was being charged £24.08 for two cups of coffee and two pieces of chocolate tart/cake in the second floor cafe/bar/restaurant. How can anyone justify charging that exorbitant price. The "menus" we were handed gave no indication of beverages or food, and certainly not prices: "Once bitten, twice shy"!

I am a fashion and textiles historian, and I went to the Design Museum to experience the glory of Azzedine Alaia. Upon entering the exhibit, I found myself in a a large open space with no attention to spacial relationships or dynamic quality whatsoever. The space is not well lit or well designed at all. The dresses are, of course, exceptional, but they are insulted rather than celebrated by the bland curation of this exhibition. There is no journey through couture history-making here, just a basic display that is totally devoid of passion or vision. It seems as though no thought has gone into the exhibition, it has just been phoned in lazily and without any professional flair. Was a curator or museum expert even involved? I left feeling very unhappy and wished I'd stayed home.

Wonderful experience, Azzedine Alaia exhibition is amazing, it has been curated with such vision to showcase glorious fashion with exceptional execution of design and technique, well done...

What a beautiful place to spend a few hours. Went with my 10 yr old son and we loved every part of it. Feeling hugely inspired 😍

Visited the Design Museum to see the Ferrari Under the Skin exhibition. Well worth the trip from Inverness! The cars on show are so rare, valuable and beautiful. And there's lots of photos, engine parts, models, drawings, videos. If you like Ferraris then you'll love this exhibition. It's worth the entry fee just to see the vintage cars. I took lots and lots of photos so was there quite a while.

Top floor is full of iconic designs, from Apple, (good) sony(OK), Braun etc, which was very interesting. But where was the Hydraulic reference turntable ("Clockwork Orange"), lecson amplifier or the Sennheiser HD414 yellow foam headphones, all design classics of the 70's ;)

This is a must-see for anyone interested in design, the culture of things, and architecture. The renovation of the former Commonwealth Institute building is a masterwork...and shout-out to Perry on staff who is very knowledgeable and helpful. Lovely lunch at Parabola too.

The Design Museum gives us the possibility of recognise exquisite design on every day objects that surrounds us �

I visited the exhibition ‘Azzedine Alaïa - The Couturier’ and was very impressed by how it was set up: the extremely nice dresses by Alaïa, the screens by various of his designer-friends, the thematic approach with a number of signature works, the booklet with some background reading on each of the themes, the manner in which the dresses were shown (on themselves, no mannequin), the good lighting. I spent a wonderful time away from daily routine of law practice. Warmly recommended!

I visited the Ferrari under the Skin exhibition and thought that it was good value. I learned a bit about the car and the man. I would recommend the exhibition to anyone, car enthusiast or not.

Great! The (permanent?) Maker exhibition on the top floor totally engaging (because the objects are so familiar) and thought provoking while being manageable in size. The venue is great.

Don’t expect to visit for the afternoon, plan for an interesting, enjoyable hour.



The shop prices are silly.

Great place, visited as a family and all agreed! 👌🏼

Gorgeous building and lovely staff. The Azzedine Alaïa Exhibition was amazing!

First visit to the museum and found it nice , open and spacious very friendly and knowledgeable staff . Excellent displays so an all round good experience.

Enjoyed it. Relaxed. Interesting exhibition. Why does this review have to be 40 characters?

Bar none, THE best rendering of industrial and post+industrial era design of any major city o have visited. Comprehensive, accessible and engaging. I learnt so much that design museums in other countries hadn't been able to teach me.

Amazing building and the current exhibitions are great too. Shame the cafe was closed

We had a really stimulating visit we came specially for the Hope to Nope exhibition which was brilliant some beautiful well designed graphics and some fascinating new tech pieces. I would highly recommend and have already done so to my friends.



Like others I have some reservations about the use of space in the building particularly as the permanent collection is in quite a small area whilst there is so much unused space in the atrium which could possibly be used more effectively for more of the collection to be on display.



I will definitely visit again

The Ferrari Exhibition was very good and worth paying for (Strange that people expect these things to be free). The free exhibition on the top floor was good too - like some of the better bits of the science museum, presented in a cooler way. I also liked the large amound of open seating around the building, giving the ability to just loiter and soak up the atmosphere. A couple of hours well spent.

Great building the Ferrari under the skin exhibition was well structured. I think there could be more in the permanent exhibition.

First of all, the building itself is quite interesting. You wouldn’t think it looks like what it is from the outside but once you got in, you will find it has quite a unique layout. And the view from holland park shows its extraordinary roof (which apparently is made of copper and that’s why you won’t get phone signal when you’re inside! .. well, according to the friendly staff who talked to us)



Secondly, the exhibition is amazing too! We went for the Azzedine Alaïa and his couture collection. You will see the absolutely gorgeous handmade dresses which took the artist years to finish. There was no description of each piece though. Alaïa wanted to display them this way. However, there is a timeline showing where he gets the impact and inspiration from.



Lastly, beside the part that the staffs there were very helpful and friendly, the activities there are fun as well. We spent some time drawing our design logo for my family. (Basically you just need to pick one topic and design stuff.) I think it’s something creative which is admittedly beneficial for all ages :)



Definitely worth checking out!!

Fantastic Azzadine Alaia exhibition, loved it! Only gripe is that there should be more headphones in the film section, two were missing from the end screen and it would have made a huge difference. Not that impressed with Parabola cafe, food over-rich and expensive. But the view is to die for :-)

What a beautiful building. Sadly it seems underutilized for the Design Museum. Only a small section is devoted to the free exhibition area. These displays are fine, some very good, but it is rather too busy and cramped. We felt it was rather themeless and contents were not well related to the excellent chronology wall at the entrance to the displays. Disappointed compared with the old place on the south bank.

The best thing about it by far is the building’s interior. It’s amazing, but a triumph of artistry over functionally. So much space is wasted, from a museum point of view, that the unremarkable permanent exhibition occupies a cramped space on

the top floor. We’d have given this two stars, but the Ferrari exhibition made it worth a third - for one of us at least! We visited Copenhagen’s Design Museum in September 2017. This was the exact opposite - an unremarkable building containing a fantastic permanent exhibition. Five stars.

I’d have expected the permanent collection to have grown with the additional space. The exhibitions didn’t appeal this time but I’m sure it’s a broad offering throughout the year. I’d recommend IF you’ve never been before since London Bridge and if there’s a temporary exhibit that is of interest.

I went to the original design museum back in the early nineties as a design student. It was great. I visited the new museum this week and was desperately disappointed. Where are all the exhibits: furniture, ceramics etc that filled the old place and the more challenging design shows? I wrongly assumed a bigger space would create new rooms, galleries etc but no only one floor for product design. ( which was excellent).Its like thr Tate Modern and Pompidou Centre massive building minimum things to show! The V&A have a better display of 20th century design.

I concur with other reviews. I love the old museum at Shad Thames as it was filled with objects at every turn. This building is 3 times, maybe more, bigger and yet there is less on display. The designer;user;maker reminded me of the old museum.

To much wood not enough exhibits. The old place was much more interesting, the new museum is more like a giant waiting room. Ferrari exhibit was good but really worth the money I don’t think so.

This is a lovely building but I was VERY disappointed with the content. I loved the fantastic array of things in the old museum. What happened. There is so much circulation space, and places you can’t get into. The upstairs exhibition isn’t a patch on its predecessor; and the number of times I couldn’t get past people looking at things on both sides of exhibits was annoyingly. What a shame. Coffee and was good but cafe space uninspired. Shop was packed and one could barely move. Presumably because people hungry to discover the design story could find more in the shop than in the exhibition space. Please re-think.

Really disappointed �. Difficult to pull together a coherent exhibition covering “design” and it seems to start and fail on too many subjects. It’s a bit jr science museum and a bit furniture store.... nothing to write home about unfortunately. There’s an interesting quote about function and design on the second floor... shame the curators didn’t heed the words, the building is a rather expensive cube, with 80% of the space fresh air.

Lovely architecture both inside and outside, but exhibits are poorly displayed.

I was excited to be visiting the Design Museum in its new location some months ago (2017) but couldn't have been more disappointed. Since then, perhaps there is more on display but it's the first time I've ever had to go to the information desk in a museum and ask if I'd missed something as there was so little to see. (The reply was no - this is it.) There was a moderately interesting exhibition that we had to pay for - just about worth the money. I'm a very enthusiastic visitor to museums and this was definitely my most disappointing ever. Sorry to be so negative.

I wanted to explore the museum, but most of the space is closed off to the public, it seems like the intention is to create a sense of exclusivity, but it just comes across as cold and empty. What little is on display is tatty and there is not much information around. I just didn't feel like I was welcome to enjoy the space, or informed about what was on offer. A bit boring.

I am a product designer/mechanical engineer. I have to echo the thoughts of many of those below; big disappointment. I'd been putting this visit off for a few years since visiting the great, but small previous museum. I was excited about this huge new home, but wow... all that empty space... I was embarrassed to have to trapse my family up several flights of stairs before seeing anything of significant interest. We passed countless, mostly locked rooms that were either lobbies, lounges, restaurants, offices etc. before reaching the corner of the top floor where the design exhibition was. This exhibition was good, although for a building so great and in a country with such a rich design heritage, it was sparse. One could easily see how the curators had left obvious items out due to lack of space; so many design icons missing. And then there were signs placed at many locations saying "Caution Uneven Flooring" where the floor was made up of slotted wooden panels that were fractured and clearly not fit for purpose. This does not set a very good tone for a design museum. Finally, the 3 part mould exhibit for the Alessi Juicy Salif (lemon squeezer) by Philippe Starck was arranged wrongly; it was as if the parts had been unfolded, to reveal the internal cavity, but the parts were not in the correct relative positions. This would ordinarily not make my review, but I think it is indicative of the need for someone to take a fresh look at this museum. I can't help but feel there are staff at the museum that must be biting their lips when being restricted in their curation. I LOVE design, and I even have a piece (Nokia 3310) in the museum that I contributed to, so I desperately hope someone can get this place up to the level the subject deserves. Please.

A lovely location in Kensington To see the fantastic Ferrari exhibition which was full of history and red blue green and yellow sports cars. A must for all motor heads and design followers

Where to begin? I got a very clinical and cold feeling from this museum. I had taken extra time in my itinerary to visit, and gave it the benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake, as the museum is overpriced and has a very unfriendly atmosphere. I found the displays quite uninspiring and noticed several mistakes in the information sections. The museum doesn't seem to have decided what it wants to be, or what message it is aiming to deliver, its just very dull and has a general lack of enthusiasm for its subject.

We were so disappointed, we wanted to be inspired and excited by this potentially great place, and ended up so bored! We tried to ask the staff for information, as we could see groups of them standing around in corners, wearing distinctive aprons, chatting to each other and/or looking intently at their smart phones. One staff member actually told us to 'hold on a bit' while he finished what he was doing on his phone, and still couldn't really answer our questions! It was actually quite depressing. If we'd wanted a demo on how to stare vacantly at an i-phone we would have just visited our 14 year old nephews! Very bad.

We decided to make the journey to see the Design Museum today, and found it rather confusing upon entry. We did not feel welcome or comfortable inside, and were eventually told to go all the way to the top floor if we didn't have a ticket. Reviews of the rather expensive ticketed exhibitions are not inspiring, so we wandered up stairs. The impression is of the exhibition being an afterthought, or like they ran out of funding half way through. Most of the interesting items on display were things we have in our own house, which was quite surreal, and I guess we could just stay home next time and look at our own things! Staff were not really helpful, and it seemed like a lot of the displays were broken or malfunctioning. Sorry, it was an odd experience.

I was visiting from New York and decided to visit the museum even though it does not have a very high profile in London, and give it a chance. I genuinely regret this decision. The Design Museum has a cheapness about it, like they want you to think its world-class, but its actually quite low-budget and not very innovative. There is an exhibition upstairs that is quite pathetic, with nasty looking displays and little sense of style or insight. I noticed cracks and damage everywhere, and just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Cant recommend it.

I feel that the Design Museum needs some hands-on advice from the public. I asked the charming lady on the door if there were any feed-back forms, but they appear to be hidden away somewhere. On the whole I found the general layout bewildering and lacking, yes, design. What really stunned my friend and I was being charged £24.08 for two cups of coffee and two pieces of chocolate tart/cake in the second floor cafe/bar/restaurant. How can anyone justify charging that exorbitant price. The "menus" we were handed gave no indication of beverages or food, and certainly not prices: "Once bitten, twice shy"!

I am a fashion and textiles historian, and I went to the Design Museum to experience the glory of Azzedine Alaia. Upon entering the exhibit, I found myself in a a large open space with no attention to spacial relationships or dynamic quality whatsoever. The space is not well lit or well designed at all. The dresses are, of course, exceptional, but they are insulted rather than celebrated by the bland curation of this exhibition. There is no journey through couture history-making here, just a basic display that is totally devoid of passion or vision. It seems as though no thought has gone into the exhibition, it has just been phoned in lazily and without any professional flair. Was a curator or museum expert even involved? I left feeling very unhappy and wished I'd stayed home.

Wonderful experience, Azzedine Alaia exhibition is amazing, it has been curated with such vision to showcase glorious fashion with exceptional execution of design and technique, well done...

What a beautiful place to spend a few hours. Went with my 10 yr old son and we loved every part of it. Feeling hugely inspired 😍

Visited the Design Museum to see the Ferrari Under the Skin exhibition. Well worth the trip from Inverness! The cars on show are so rare, valuable and beautiful. And there's lots of photos, engine parts, models, drawings, videos. If you like Ferraris then you'll love this exhibition. It's worth the entry fee just to see the vintage cars. I took lots and lots of photos so was there quite a while.

Top floor is full of iconic designs, from Apple, (good) sony(OK), Braun etc, which was very interesting. But where was the Hydraulic reference turntable ("Clockwork Orange"), lecson amplifier or the Sennheiser HD414 yellow foam headphones, all design classics of the 70's ;)

This is a must-see for anyone interested in design, the culture of things, and architecture. The renovation of the former Commonwealth Institute building is a masterwork...and shout-out to Perry on staff who is very knowledgeable and helpful. Lovely lunch at Parabola too.

The Design Museum gives us the possibility of recognise exquisite design on every day objects that surrounds us �

I visited the exhibition ‘Azzedine Alaïa - The Couturier’ and was very impressed by how it was set up: the extremely nice dresses by Alaïa, the screens by various of his designer-friends, the thematic approach with a number of signature works, the booklet with some background reading on each of the themes, the manner in which the dresses were shown (on themselves, no mannequin), the good lighting. I spent a wonderful time away from daily routine of law practice. Warmly recommended!

I visited the Ferrari under the Skin exhibition and thought that it was good value. I learned a bit about the car and the man. I would recommend the exhibition to anyone, car enthusiast or not.

Great! The (permanent?) Maker exhibition on the top floor totally engaging (because the objects are so familiar) and thought provoking while being manageable in size. The venue is great.

Don’t expect to visit for the afternoon, plan for an interesting, enjoyable hour.



The shop prices are silly.

Great place, visited as a family and all agreed! 👌🏼

Gorgeous building and lovely staff. The Azzedine Alaïa Exhibition was amazing!

First visit to the museum and found it nice , open and spacious very friendly and knowledgeable staff . Excellent displays so an all round good experience.

Enjoyed it. Relaxed. Interesting exhibition. Why does this review have to be 40 characters?

Bar none, THE best rendering of industrial and post+industrial era design of any major city o have visited. Comprehensive, accessible and engaging. I learnt so much that design museums in other countries hadn't been able to teach me.

Amazing building and the current exhibitions are great too. Shame the cafe was closed

We had a really stimulating visit we came specially for the Hope to Nope exhibition which was brilliant some beautiful well designed graphics and some fascinating new tech pieces. I would highly recommend and have already done so to my friends.



Like others I have some reservations about the use of space in the building particularly as the permanent collection is in quite a small area whilst there is so much unused space in the atrium which could possibly be used more effectively for more of the collection to be on display.



I will definitely visit again

The Ferrari Exhibition was very good and worth paying for (Strange that people expect these things to be free). The free exhibition on the top floor was good too - like some of the better bits of the science museum, presented in a cooler way. I also liked the large amound of open seating around the building, giving the ability to just loiter and soak up the atmosphere. A couple of hours well spent.

Great building the Ferrari under the skin exhibition was well structured. I think there could be more in the permanent exhibition.

First of all, the building itself is quite interesting. You wouldn’t think it looks like what it is from the outside but once you got in, you will find it has quite a unique layout. And the view from holland park shows its extraordinary roof (which apparently is made of copper and that’s why you won’t get phone signal when you’re inside! .. well, according to the friendly staff who talked to us)



Secondly, the exhibition is amazing too! We went for the Azzedine Alaïa and his couture collection. You will see the absolutely gorgeous handmade dresses which took the artist years to finish. There was no description of each piece though. Alaïa wanted to display them this way. However, there is a timeline showing where he gets the impact and inspiration from.



Lastly, beside the part that the staffs there were very helpful and friendly, the activities there are fun as well. We spent some time drawing our design logo for my family. (Basically you just need to pick one topic and design stuff.) I think it’s something creative which is admittedly beneficial for all ages :)



Definitely worth checking out!!

Fantastic Azzadine Alaia exhibition, loved it! Only gripe is that there should be more headphones in the film section, two were missing from the end screen and it would have made a huge difference. Not that impressed with Parabola cafe, food over-rich and expensive. But the view is to die for :-)

What a beautiful building. Sadly it seems underutilized for the Design Museum. Only a small section is devoted to the free exhibition area. These displays are fine, some very good, but it is rather too busy and cramped. We felt it was rather themeless and contents were not well related to the excellent chronology wall at the entrance to the displays. Disappointed compared with the old place on the south bank.

The best thing about it by far is the building’s interior. It’s amazing, but a triumph of artistry over functionally. So much space is wasted, from a museum point of view, that the unremarkable permanent exhibition occupies a cramped space on

the top floor. We’d have given this two stars, but the Ferrari exhibition made it worth a third - for one of us at least! We visited Copenhagen’s Design Museum in September 2017. This was the exact opposite - an unremarkable building containing a fantastic permanent exhibition. Five stars.

I’d have expected the permanent collection to have grown with the additional space. The exhibitions didn’t appeal this time but I’m sure it’s a broad offering throughout the year. I’d recommend IF you’ve never been before since London Bridge and if there’s a temporary exhibit that is of interest.

I went to the original design museum back in the early nineties as a design student. It was great. I visited the new museum this week and was desperately disappointed. Where are all the exhibits: furniture, ceramics etc that filled the old place and the more challenging design shows? I wrongly assumed a bigger space would create new rooms, galleries etc but no only one floor for product design. ( which was excellent).Its like thr Tate Modern and Pompidou Centre massive building minimum things to show! The V&A have a better display of 20th century design.

I concur with other reviews. I love the old museum at Shad Thames as it was filled with objects at every turn. This building is 3 times, maybe more, bigger and yet there is less on display. The designer;user;maker reminded me of the old museum.

To much wood not enough exhibits. The old place was much more interesting, the new museum is more like a giant waiting room. Ferrari exhibit was good but really worth the money I don’t think so.

This is a lovely building but I was VERY disappointed with the content. I loved the fantastic array of things in the old museum. What happened. There is so much circulation space, and places you can’t get into. The upstairs exhibition isn’t a patch on its predecessor; and the number of times I couldn’t get past people looking at things on both sides of exhibits was annoyingly. What a shame. Coffee and was good but cafe space uninspired. Shop was packed and one could barely move. Presumably because people hungry to discover the design story could find more in the shop than in the exhibition space. Please re-think.

Really disappointed �. Difficult to pull together a coherent exhibition covering “design” and it seems to start and fail on too many subjects. It’s a bit jr science museum and a bit furniture store.... nothing to write home about unfortunately. There’s an interesting quote about function and design on the second floor... shame the curators didn’t heed the words, the building is a rather expensive cube, with 80% of the space fresh air.

Lovely architecture both inside and outside, but exhibits are poorly displayed.

I was excited to be visiting the Design Museum in its new location some months ago (2017) but couldn't have been more disappointed. Since then, perhaps there is more on display but it's the first time I've ever had to go to the information desk in a museum and ask if I'd missed something as there was so little to see. (The reply was no - this is it.) There was a moderately interesting exhibition that we had to pay for - just about worth the money. I'm a very enthusiastic visitor to museums and this was definitely my most disappointing ever. Sorry to be so negative.

I wanted to explore the museum, but most of the space is closed off to the public, it seems like the intention is to create a sense of exclusivity, but it just comes across as cold and empty. What little is on display is tatty and there is not much information around. I just didn't feel like I was welcome to enjoy the space, or informed about what was on offer. A bit boring.

I am a product designer/mechanical engineer. I have to echo the thoughts of many of those below; big disappointment. I'd been putting this visit off for a few years since visiting the great, but small previous museum. I was excited about this huge new home, but wow... all that empty space... I was embarrassed to have to trapse my family up several flights of stairs before seeing anything of significant interest. We passed countless, mostly locked rooms that were either lobbies, lounges, restaurants, offices etc. before reaching the corner of the top floor where the design exhibition was. This exhibition was good, although for a building so great and in a country with such a rich design heritage, it was sparse. One could easily see how the curators had left obvious items out due to lack of space; so many design icons missing. And then there were signs placed at many locations saying "Caution Uneven Flooring" where the floor was made up of slotted wooden panels that were fractured and clearly not fit for purpose. This does not set a very good tone for a design museum. Finally, the 3 part mould exhibit for the Alessi Juicy Salif (lemon squeezer) by Philippe Starck was arranged wrongly; it was as if the parts had been unfolded, to reveal the internal cavity, but the parts were not in the correct relative positions. This would ordinarily not make my review, but I think it is indicative of the need for someone to take a fresh look at this museum. I can't help but feel there are staff at the museum that must be biting their lips when being restricted in their curation. I LOVE design, and I even have a piece (Nokia 3310) in the museum that I contributed to, so I desperately hope someone can get this place up to the level the subject deserves. Please.

A lovely location in Kensington To see the fantastic Ferrari exhibition which was full of history and red blue green and yellow sports cars. A must for all motor heads and design followers

Where to begin? I got a very clinical and cold feeling from this museum. I had taken extra time in my itinerary to visit, and gave it the benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake, as the museum is overpriced and has a very unfriendly atmosphere. I found the displays quite uninspiring and noticed several mistakes in the information sections. The museum doesn't seem to have decided what it wants to be, or what message it is aiming to deliver, its just very dull and has a general lack of enthusiasm for its subject.

We were so disappointed, we wanted to be inspired and excited by this potentially great place, and ended up so bored! We tried to ask the staff for information, as we could see groups of them standing around in corners, wearing distinctive aprons, chatting to each other and/or looking intently at their smart phones. One staff member actually told us to 'hold on a bit' while he finished what he was doing on his phone, and still couldn't really answer our questions! It was actually quite depressing. If we'd wanted a demo on how to stare vacantly at an i-phone we would have just visited our 14 year old nephews! Very bad.

We decided to make the journey to see the Design Museum today, and found it rather confusing upon entry. We did not feel welcome or comfortable inside, and were eventually told to go all the way to the top floor if we didn't have a ticket. Reviews of the rather expensive ticketed exhibitions are not inspiring, so we wandered up stairs. The impression is of the exhibition being an afterthought, or like they ran out of funding half way through. Most of the interesting items on display were things we have in our own house, which was quite surreal, and I guess we could just stay home next time and look at our own things! Staff were not really helpful, and it seemed like a lot of the displays were broken or malfunctioning. Sorry, it was an odd experience.

I was visiting from New York and decided to visit the museum even though it does not have a very high profile in London, and give it a chance. I genuinely regret this decision. The Design Museum has a cheapness about it, like they want you to think its world-class, but its actually quite low-budget and not very innovative. There is an exhibition upstairs that is quite pathetic, with nasty looking displays and little sense of style or insight. I noticed cracks and damage everywhere, and just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Cant recommend it.

I feel that the Design Museum needs some hands-on advice from the public. I asked the charming lady on the door if there were any feed-back forms, but they appear to be hidden away somewhere. On the whole I found the general layout bewildering and lacking, yes, design. What really stunned my friend and I was being charged £24.08 for two cups of coffee and two pieces of chocolate tart/cake in the second floor cafe/bar/restaurant. How can anyone justify charging that exorbitant price. The "menus" we were handed gave no indication of beverages or food, and certainly not prices: "Once bitten, twice shy"!

I am a fashion and textiles historian, and I went to the Design Museum to experience the glory of Azzedine Alaia. Upon entering the exhibit, I found myself in a a large open space with no attention to spacial relationships or dynamic quality whatsoever. The space is not well lit or well designed at all. The dresses are, of course, exceptional, but they are insulted rather than celebrated by the bland curation of this exhibition. There is no journey through couture history-making here, just a basic display that is totally devoid of passion or vision. It seems as though no thought has gone into the exhibition, it has just been phoned in lazily and without any professional flair. Was a curator or museum expert even involved? I left feeling very unhappy and wished I'd stayed home.