DESIGN: Swiss Design Collection, Part II

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, home to Switzerland’s largest international design collection, is celebrating its 150th anniversary with the opening of the new permanent exhibition “Swiss Design Collection”. The showcase presents around 2,500 objects while offering changing perspectives on the collection and inviting visitors to try their own hand at designing as they expand their knowledge of the field (Part I).

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich Archive

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich has been collecting exemplary objects since 1875 in an effort to document important trends in design history and communicate them to a broad audience. The museum’s collections of graphic art, typography, poster design, textiles, product design, and decorative arts have attained international standing and include many milestones of aesthetic and technical development. The exhibition “Swiss Design Collection” gives visitors a closer look at the collection’s work in four exhibition sections that provide opportunities to delve deeper, interact, and participate. The exhibition begins with a selection of key objects from the museum’s extensive holdings. By perusing some 2,000 everyday objects, textiles, and examples of type design from different eras, visitors can discover the entire spectrum of design. A poster wall curated ac- cording to specific themes offers a fascinating look at the diversity and history of poster design. Also on view is a selection of particularly striking logo designs from Switzerland, some of which have left an indelible mark on our collective visual memory. The “Forum” presents a series of changing external perspectives on the collection. Selected contributions suggest fresh approaches and unexpected ways of seeing the objects. One example is the “Curated by” format, in which the museum invites designers to conceive part of the exhibition according to their own ideas and bring it to life through their own unique point of view. For the 2025 edition, photographer Nicolas Polli from Ticino has staged the objects he selected photographically. Another “Forum” contribution is the light installation created by the Zurich Colourlight Center at Zurich University of the Arts, in which Susi + Ueli Berger’s “5-minute chair” can be experienced as an optical illusion. In “Comments: Culinary Perspectives”, people from different communities share their views on selected food-related collection objects. The “Graduates” section presents the “Print My Sleep” project by Rafael Gil Cordeiro, who recorded his sleep data and transformed it into ceramic objects using 3D printing.  Another area is the “Video Archive: Voices of Design|, featuring selected interviews with designers. “Provenance Research: Paths into the Collection” traces the origin of various collection objects. Based on ancient Peruvian textiles, for example, the culture from which they originate is examined along with the practices of the dealer who sold them to the museum in 1952. Last but not least, in the project “Youth Collective: Sammelnjung”, pupils at Zurich’s Limmat School explore the design of their city and present their proposals for expanding the mu- seum’s collection accordingly.  A “Studio set up” in the exhibition offers visitors a chance to experience design actively and with all their senses. Ideas and materials are available in a Paper Workshop to inspire children, young people, and adults to fold, experiment, and create. Visitors can also try out different chairs—from classic to unconventional—and find out which one suits them best. And in the library, anyone interested can browse through books, exchange ideas, or simply relax. The basement of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich holds around 580,000 objects from the fields of design, graphic art, decorative arts, and poster design—a real treasure trove for anyone with a passion for creative diversity. For the first time, the public will be invited to explore part of this “Archive” independently as part of the “Swiss Design Collection”. A glass walkway leads through the two-story shelving system and offers a spectacular view into the depths of the collection. Here, the impressive furniture collection in particular can be seen in a new light—with a focus on Swiss design. The pieces are arranged according to typology, construction, material, or design process, illustrating the craftsmanship that went into them and the design principles on which they are based. There are also numer- ous additional highlights to discover: shoes by Stefi Talmann, haute couture gowns by the world-famous fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, marionettes created by Sophie Taeuber-Arp—an impressive testimony to Zurich’s avant-garde—as well as valuable musical instruments, some of them over 300 years old.

Photo: Dale Chihuly, Orange and Mauve Macchia Pair, 1985, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, photo: Umberto Romito & Ivan Šuta, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Info: Curators: Damian Fopp and Renate Menzi, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, Zurich, Switzerland, Duration :11/4- (Permanent Exhibition), Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-17:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, www.museum-gestaltung.ch/