Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Vitra Design MuseumVitra Design MuseumNowhere else packs this much design and architecture into one walk. Frank Gehry's museum building, his first project in Europe, hosts two major temporary exhibitions a year, while the Herzog & de Meuron Schaudepot keeps about 400 key objects from the collection on show, the best single room…0
  2. 2Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumThe only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design, and the deepest design collection a North American visitor can reach without a flight across an ocean: more than 215,000 objects spanning 30 centuries. It lives in the landmark Carnegie Mansion on the…0
  3. 3Design MuseumDesign MuseumThe easiest strong start on the list, because its permanent display, Designer Maker User, is free to enter with no booking. Almost 1,000 items of 20th and 21st century design cover everything from architecture and engineering to the digital world, fashion and graphics, so a first visit gives a…0
  4. 4Museum of Design, ZurichMuseum of Design, ZurichGraphic designers should put this one near the top. The Museum für Gestaltung has been collecting everyday and sophisticated design since 1875 and now holds more than 580,000 physical, hybrid and digital objects, over half a million of them from the history of graphics and design. It runs across…0
  5. 5Die Neue SammlungDie Neue SammlungOften called the oldest design museum in the world, and founded around a century ago, Die Neue Sammlung holds around 100,000 objects, a collection it describes as the largest of its kind. It shares the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich with three other museums under one roof, so a design-focused day…0
  6. 6Bauhaus Museum DessauBauhaus Museum DessauThe Bauhaus shaped a century of furniture, lighting and graphics, and Dessau is where the school did its best-known work. The Bauhaus Museum Dessau, opened on September 8, 2019, finally gave the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation's holdings of about 49,000 items, the second largest Bauhaus collection in the…0
  7. 7Designmuseum DenmarkDesignmuseum DenmarkThe place to understand Danish Modern from the inside. Its Danish Modern exhibition traces how the country's most iconic objects were made between the 1920s and the 1970s, and the building itself is part of the lesson: Kaare Klint furnished the entire museum and designed its whole inventory in the…0
  8. 8Architecture & Design Museum, HelsinkiArchitecture & Design Museum, HelsinkiThe place to see Finnish design in its own setting. The museum on Korkeavuorenkatu now covers architecture and design together, and its current headline show, Aalto Design – Shapes of Wellbeing, looks at the architecture and design of Alvar, Aino and Elissa Aalto through the idea of wellbeing, a…0
  9. 9M+M+The one museum here that is not about design alone, and still essential, because design and architecture is one of its core collections alongside visual art and moving image. That mix suits anyone curious how Asian design, from Hong Kong and Greater China outward, connects to film, graphics and…0
  10. 10Triennale di MilanoTriennale di MilanoMuseo del Design Italiano Triennale Milano's permanent display of Italian design was reorganized in February 2026 and now shows 400 items, all from its own holdings, running from the late 1920s up to 2005. That span is the point: you see the postwar classics in the company of what came before and…0