Design made in Barcelona, from the 4th century BC to the present day

The made in Barcelona design goes back a long way. The Museu del Disseny preserves more than 70,000 objects — amongst which we can find furniture, ceramics, glass, fabrics, watches, jewellery, wallpapers, etc. — that have traditionally been classified as applied arts and range from the 4th century BC to the present day. Amongst these items, you will find internationally renowned pieces and collections, such as the ceramic panel La xocolatada, dating from 1710.

Since 2012, the museum has become the cathedral of the arts of objects and design, thanks to the construction of the Disseny Hub Barcelona in Plaça de les Glòries – a building specially designed to enable the integration and dissemination of the collections of four of the city's former museums: the Decorative Arts Museum, the Ceramics Museum, the Textile and Apparel Museum, and the Graphic Arts Cabinet. Their common denominators are the objects, and all those objects have had meaning and brought significant contributions throughout history: from their conception, creation and production to their use in accordance with time and society, both in the artisan and pre-industrial periods as well as in the industrial and digital eras. Most of them are "objects for living," i.e., for everyday life.

Thanks to the flexible and plural museum discourse, these traditional arts are logically linked to the contemporary signature arts and naturally link up with the different product, graphic and fashion design collections from the 20th century that have brought the Catalan capital so much fame as an avant-garde city and a centre of creativity. The museum proposes an approach to six thematic collections through various readings in the form of many permanent exhibitions. It also offers a critical reflection on what the contribution of design to 21st-century society should be.

The collections that make up the museum are: Product design, composed of 2,000 pieces of furniture, lamps, vehicles, packaging and equipment produced since 1930; Fashion collection, from Balenciaga to the 080 Awards; Graphic design, which brings together posters, calendars, displayers, cards, boxes, cases and signs from the late 19th century; Decorative arts, where you can find Andalusian ceramics, medieval chests, Renaissance desks and 18th-century carriages; Textile arts and historic clothing, with Flemish tapestries and Coptic, Egyptian, Hispano-Arabic or Gothic fabrics, both civil and liturgical; and Graphic Arts Collection with matrixes, typographies, popular engravings, advertising and packaging from the last three hundred years. On the other hand, some of the permanent collections we can now visit are Extraordinary! Collections of decorative arts (3rd-19th Century), curated by Pilar Vélez; Modernisme: toward the design culture, by Mireia Freixa and Pilar Vélez; Dressing the Body. Silhouettes and fashion (1550-2015), conceived by Teresa Bastardes and Sílvia Ventosa; Do you Work or Design? New Visual Communication. 1980-2003, by Raquel Pelta; From World to Museum. Product Design, Cultural Heritage, by Pilar Vélez, Teresa Bastardes and Rossend Casanova; and finally, Museum-Apartment at the Casa Bloc, Dwelling 1/11. This last space is located in Sant Andreu and will offer a guided tour that will last an hour and a half every Saturday at 11 am starting on September 19. If you are interested, you can get your tickets for 5 euros here.

Tickets for the museum can be obtained directly at the ticket office. General admission is 6 euros, while reduced admission is 4. There is also a combined ticket for 9 euros that gives access to all exhibitions, temporary and permanent, which you can buy online here.

On Sunday, September 5, there is an open door with free entry. On the other hand, please note that the exhibitions From World to Museum and Do you Work or Design? will be closed to the public from August 31 until further notice.