Designmuseum Danmark

The museum occupies the former Frederik's Hospital, a rococo complex of the 1750s around a courtyard garden, which gives it a calm that suits the subject. It reopened in 2022 after a long rebuild. The collection covers Danish and international design and applied art, but the section everyone photographs is the chair corridor, a long gallery lined with twentieth-century Danish chairs in sequence, from Kaare Klint through Wegner, Jacobsen, Juhl and Panton, which sets out the whole argument of Danish modern furniture in one walk. Elsewhere there are strong holdings of ceramics and silver, a large East Asian collection that influenced Danish potters, textiles, and a section on posters and industrial design. The garden courtyard is open in summer.

What you actually see

• The chair corridor - Danish twentieth-century chairs in sequence.
• Ceramics and silver - Royal Copenhagen, Georg Jensen and their contemporaries.
• The East Asian collection - the source Danish potters worked from.
• The rococo hospital building - courtyard wings of the 1750s.

When to go

Year round. Two hours. Closed Mondays. The garden courtyard is open in the warmer months and is a good lunch spot. Weekday afternoons are quiet.

Honest expectations

The ticket price is high for the size of the display. Since the rebuild some visitors find the permanent presentation thinner than before. It is a specialist subject and will feel narrow to anyone not interested in furniture and objects. The shop is expensive.

Nearby

Amalienborg and the Marble Church are a short walk; the David Collection is close.