Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen

Designmuseum Danmark brings together Danish and international design with a broad range of crafts in a Copenhagen museum. Its collection includes work by Arne Jacobsen, Jacob Jensen, and Kaare Klint, alongside Chinese and German porcelain. The building itself is a former Frederiks Hospital, constructed from 1752 to 1757 and adapted for museum use during the 1920s by Kaare Klint and Ivar Bentsen.

The museum began in 1890 and moved into this former hospital in 1926. Its purpose was not simply display: the original institution aimed to inspire craftspeople and manufacturers through examples of excellent making and design. The museum also houses Scandinavia’s largest library devoted to decorative arts and industrial design, with public access. On the museum’s first floor, the Danish Design Archive and the Poster Collection extend that story beyond the galleries.