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.

History

The museum was founded in 1890 on the initiative of, among others, the Industriforeningen, and a purpose-built building by Vilhelm Klein on City Hall Square was completed in 1894 and opened the following year, with separate galleries for porcelain, faience, silver, furniture, glass and textiles, meant to inspire craftspeople and manufacturers with the best work of different ages. In 1926 it moved into its present home, the former Frederik's Hospital of 1752-57, given by the banker Emil Glückstadt, which the architects Kaare Klint and Ivar Bentsen adapted and furnished. Known for many years as the Danish Museum of Decorative Art and then the Danish Museum of Art & Design, it took the name Designmuseum Danmark in 2011 (Wikipedia, Designmuseum Denmark).

What's there

• 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.

Things to know

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.

Key facts