the museum’s origins 

The Design Museum is the result of the merging of several previous existing museums. Specifically the Museu de les Arts Decoratives, the Museu Tèxtil i d’Indumentària and the Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques collection.

Above all, it is a centre for Barcelona’s Institute of Culture. They work to promote better understanding of the design world. It is both a museum and laboratory. It focuses on 4 branches of design: use of space, products, information display and fashion.

whats in a name

It was originally to be named the Barcelona Design Museum. Then from 2008 to 2013 it was called ‘Design Hub Barcelona’, but finally it was renamed again as Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (Design Museum of Barcelona).

The building consists of two spaces: an underground one (using the level change created by the urbanisation of the Glories square) and one that emerges 14.50 meters above the ground. Therefore the latter is a ‘parallelepiped bias cut’ mirroring the width of Avila Street. In addition it highlights the geo-metric relationship between the streets of the  Eixample and the Glòries square. Similarly the clever design means the view of the large central park remains unaffected.

Unquestionably the ‘green carpet’ is one of the most important components and it is made with natural or artificial elements to ensure sustainability and easy maintenance.

green and modern

The project was designed by MBM architecture firm, formed by Oriol Martorell, Oriol Bohigas and David Mackay The entire build is based upon sustainability, energy efficiency and being environmentally friendly.

design museum 3 in 1

The Museu de les Arts Decoratives was a museum created in 1932. This historic museum contains a rich and diverse collection of European decorative arts, from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. 

The Museu Tèxtil i d’Indumentària possesses countless objects and pieces of major artistic and historical value that make up their collections of garments, fabrics and jewellery. Accordingly their collection of clothes, the museum allows you to take a journey through the history of textiles, from the 16th century right up to the modern day.

The Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques, a Cabinet of Graphic Arts, was a museum dedicated to visual communication design. Correspondingly the collections of the museum bring together significant samples of typography such as punches, matrices and tracing plates, as well as, prints that include samples of binding, packaging, labels and posters.