Design Museum ( fi, Designmuseo, sv, Designmuseet) is a museum in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

devoted to the exhibition of both

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and foreign design, including

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

, fashion, and

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

. The building is situated in

Kaartinkaupunki Kaartinkaupunki ( sv, Gardesstaden) is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Helsinki, Finland. Kaartinkaupunki consists of the area between the Esplanadi park and the Tähtitornin vuori park. Its area was first confirmed in 1812, but the ...

, on Korkeavuorenkatu Street, and is owned by the

Republic of Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Both ...

through

Senate Properties sv, Senatfastigheter , logo = Senate logo.gif , type = Liikelaitos Senate Properties 2009(Finnish). (≈ unincorporated entity, unincorporated state-owned enterprise) Ministry of Finance 2009. Senate Properties 2009/ref ...

. The building was completed in 1895 and originally built as a school building for the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

school Läroverket för gossar och flickor. The museum, which is 140 years old (2013) and one of the oldest in the world – was first founded in 1873 but has operated in its present premises, a former school, designed by architect Gustaf Nyström in 1894 in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, since 1978. In 2002, the museum changed its name from Taideteollisuusmuseo to Designmuseo ("Design Museum") because the original name was too long and complicated. The museum also has a cafe and shop. Situated on the same city block is the

Museum of Finnish Architecture The Museum of Finnish Architecture ( fi, Suomen arkkitehtuurimuseo, sv, Finlands arkitekturmuseum) is an architectural museum in Helsinki, Finland. Established in 1956, it is the second oldest museum of its kind (after the Shchusev Museum of Arc ...

. The museum includes a permanent exhibition devoted to the history of Finnish design from 1870 to the present day, as well as space for changing exhibitions. The museum's permanent collection consists of over 75,000 objects, 40,000 drawings and 100,000 drawings. Design Museum arranges also international touring exhibitions and publishes books and exhibition catalogues. From museum's home page, there is a free access to several web exhibitions on Finnish design, for example about the production of

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

Factory,

Marimekko Marimekko Oyj is a Finnish textiles, clothing, and home furnishings company founded by Viljo and Armi Ratia in Helsinki in 1951. Marimekko made important contributions to fashion in the 1960s. It is particularly noted for its brightly colored pri ...

and designers

Kaj Franck Kaj Gabriel Franck (9 November 1911 Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland – 26 September 1989 Santorini, Greece) was one of the leading figures of Finnish design and an influential figure in design and applied arts between 1940 and 1980. Franck's paren ...

and

Oiva Toikka Oiva Kalervo Toikka (29 May 1931 – 22 April 2019) was a Finnish glass designer, best known for his designs for Iittala. Biography Oiva Toikka was born in Viipurin maalaiskunta, the rural municipality surrounding then-Finnish Vyborg, now part ...

. Latest web exhibition is about 1950–60s design – an iconic golden era of Finnish Design.

References

External links

* {{authority control Design museums Museums in Helsinki Art museums and galleries in Finland Art museums established in 1873 1873 establishments in Finland Kaartinkaupunki