Design in London

As a new Design Museum is announced, the sector is showing the rest of the creative industries how to promote, celebrate and share.

In 2014, as part of an €100 million redevelopment, the Design Museum will move into the the old Commonwealth Institute, a 1960s Modernist masterpiece in Albertopolis, near London’s major museums.

In a complete coincidence, the interior remodelling will be done by the architect John Pawson, who also has a retrospective at the Museum’s current Shad Thames home in 2010.

The design has been described as “respectful”to the original designs but there is still a lot of redevelopment - the building will accommodate a cafe, auditorium, three temporary and one permanent exhibition galleries, a library and an education space.

 

A wider programme

The museum aims to double its visitor numbers to 500,000 a year, in part by expanding its education and public events programme. Inside, it remains focused on design as improving quality of life. So it’s not all iPods and fancy hats - there are plenty of toasters and innovative brooms on display. It’s another coup for the sector - they’ll be located in the heart of the cultural establishment, in a famous building, given them real establishment credentials. It’s a mature sector.

On top of this investment, the design sector in London has its own week, the London Design Festival. And you can barely walk through the parts of London that focus on design (Noho, Clerkenwell) without having to push through a new design exhibition opening.

 

Part of a sector on the up

And this is great for the sector, but also it is also an illustration of why it’s one that’s on the rise in London.

Sectors that are open for sharing, finding other new ideas, learning from others, collaboration and cooperation are usually successful. They keep ahead of the competition.

So while there are bound to be some criticisms of the expensive new home - the critic Stephen Bayley written an article suggesting that the new location "may confirm cynical suspicions that 'design' is only a specialised branch of shopping" - it is a great new home for the sector.

It might be a Museum, but it’s a sector looking to the future.