Museum of Design in Zurich

Brief Information

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich grew out of the municipal museum of applied arts, but its history is easier to read not by dates, but by moves. In 1933, the museum, together with the School of Applied Arts, moved into the building on Ausstellungsstrasse designed by Adolf Steger and Karl Egender. The source text explicitly notes that this building is now considered an architectural monument, so the museum’s shell itself is no less important than its exhibitions.

Later, the collections were spread across different premises in the canton of Zurich, and in 2014 they were brought together under one roof at Toni-Areal. After renovation, the old building on Ausstellungsstrasse reopened in 2018 and became a venue not only for temporary exhibitions but also for a permanent display. In this way, the museum appears as a system of two sites: the historic building and the space where the holdings were concentrated.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to look at the museum through the four types of things it collects: design, graphics, decorative and applied arts, and posters. Posters are especially important here not as wall decoration, but as an archive of visual communication: the collection traces Swiss and international posters from the mid-19th century to the present and includes political, artistic, and commercial examples from different regions of the world.

This can be compared with the design collection: it focuses on serially produced objects from the 20th and early 21st centuries, that is, on items intended for repetition and mass use. The graphic collection is organized differently: it includes drawings, engravings, and illustrated books from the 15th to the 21st century. These three areas show different lives of image and form: the poster addresses the public, the serial object enters everyday life, and graphics preserve the work of line, print, and book.