Design Museum

The Helsinki Design Museum was founded in 1873 as the collection of the Arts and Crafts School. This institution was not only the first design museum in Scandinavia but also one of the oldest design museums in the world. The museum is specialized in design and craft arts. The museum is the place of research work and collecting of documents referring design, both in Finland and abroad, and of course, it helds the exhibitions on history and contemporary events of design.

The Design Museum's building was constructed in 1894 under the project of architect Gustav Nustrom. The museum was placed here since 1978. The ground floor of the building is given to the permanent exhibition dedicated to the history and development of design in Finland. Two upper floors are occupied with temporary exhibitions representing most distinct and important trends of the contemporary design. The Design Museum holds annually about 15 thematic exhibitions and organizes also exhibitions of Finnish design abroad. The museum hosts over 35 thousand items, above 40 thousand drawings and drafts, about 100 thousand images. More than thousand designers from around the world are registered in the museum's archives.