Design Museum Brussels

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The Design Museum Brussels, established after the acquisition of a private collection by the Atomium, is a place dedicated to design and its history.

Since 2015, the museum's collection, the Plastic Design Collection, circumscribes the landscape of plastics in design from the 1950s to the present day.

Alongside this collection, the museum opened belgisch design belge, a permanent exhibition space dedicated to Belgian design and its history.

Enriched by a programme of temporary exhibitions, the Design Museum Brussels also explores other fields of design creation and its impact on society and our daily lives.

Through exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, conferences and events, the museum aims to ensure that design is intelligible to one and all.
  • The Brussels Design Museum is situated in the northern part of Brussels:
    - 5 minutes' walk from the Heysel / Heizel metro and tram (line 6 and 7) and facing Palais 5 of the Heysel exhibition park, 100 m from the Atomium.
    - Metro: line 6 – Heizel / Heysel station
    - Tram : line 7 - station Heizel / Heysel
    - Bus : line 14 and 83 - station Heizel / Heysel
    - Tourist buses: red bus stops (Brussels City Sightseeing),
    100 m on foot from the Atomium
    - Villo (bike rental): station 281, located at 30 m on Boulevard du Centenaire.
    - Parking with 500 paid parking spaces 50m from the entrance (Parking Trade Mart - Avenue de l'Atomium)
  • 6 Heysel / Heizel
  • 7 Heysel / Heizel
  • Opening times

    17/05/2023 - 05/11/2023: * monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00

  • Price

    Pass musées: 0,00 € - Catégorie 3: 8,00 € - Catégorie 1: 10,00 € - Article 27: 1,25 €

From the 1950s on, LGBTQI+ communities in Brussels have used graphic design and developed a specific language. This visual language signals their presence and their commitment to a set of shared principles, identities and values. Shaped by struggle and celebration, turmoil and compromise, this tool of both resistance and resilience fosters an alternative form of collectiveness. Through the materiality, composition, typography, iteration and language used, graphic designers, both professional and amateur, identify and address their message towards specific audiences. Organized by themes, Brussels Queer Graphics, far from being an exhaustive project, offers an overview of this visual language. This exhibition explores the ways in which the LGBTQI+ communities have expressed themselves and made themselves visible over the last seventy years in Brussels. From 1953 and the birth of the Centre Culturel Belge/Cultureel Centrum België driven by Suzan Daniel to the present day, this exhibition and its accompanying publication invite us to immerse ourselves into a cultural history of the everyday life and the activism of LGBTQI+ individuals, communities, associations and groups. Relying on silence and even the absence of materials, but also on the over-representation of the letter G in the history and the archives, this exhibition reflects an era, a history and many memories. NAMING For reasons of inclusivity and conciseness, we chose to use the initialism LGBTQI+ in this exhibition. However, we are aware that other terms may have been used during the period covered in Brussels Queer Graphics.

  • Opening times

    15/09/2023 - 14/01/2024: * monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00

  • Price

    Etudiants: 8,00 € - Seniors: 8,00 € - < 12 ans: 0,00 € - Normal: 10,00 € - Article 27: 1,25 €

After its short flourishing life, Art Nouveau continued to be a strong aesthetic reference in the history of design all through the 20th century. Resonances proposes a series of dialogues between the Plastic Design Collection and a selection of Art Nouveau pieces from a Brussels private collection. Beyond the classic historical definition of a new style or a new material, the exhibition highlights the patterns through which modernity was sought for in two different technologically hectic periods. Swirling whiplash curves, flowing structural lines, exotic floral patterns and fantastic dream-like environments show how Art Nouveau’s quest for natural plasticity reverberates in the alchemic nature of plastic.

  • Opening times

    11/10/2023 - 10/03/2024: * monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday: from 11:00 to 19:00

  • Price

    Normal: 8,00 € - Article 27: 1,25 €

Because of his prolific activity between the 1960s and 1980s, Christophe Gevers' material legacy is relatively rich. More than an exhibition of objects, the Design Museum Brussels will host a reconstruction of his professional universe: a narrative ensemble composed of archives and objects, documents and testimonies. Gevers' creative process will be revealed 'unfiltered' thanks, among other things, to the archives of Thierry Belenger, currently kept at the museum, and to a selection of furniture, lamps, sculptures and toys. The richness of this documentation will allow us to reconstruct the often hidden path that characterises the work of the architect and designer: sketches, plans, technical studies, photographs, files for listing projects, correspondence with clients, price quotations, models. These elements, which constitute Gevers' professional universe, will contribute to revealing the complexity of this profession, and to updating this character who, throughout his career, has transformed private and public architecture, restaurants and banks, into pleasant, functional and human living spaces, thanks to a unique language where materiality, technical ingenuity and the supremacy of detail dialogue with the know-how of the meticulous craftsman and the creative passion of the designer. Christophe Gevers, as he liked to define himself, was a designer because he was interested in the present, which is the future, and the past, which is long past. The Design Museum Brussels contributes to this temporal alchemy by promoting the topicality of his research and the exemplary nature of his approach.

  • Price

    Normal: 8,00 € - Article 27: 1,25 €

As part of the Through the eyes of program, external personalities offer their personal views on the exhibitions of the Design Museum Brussels. A unique customized visit where the choice of theme and approach is left to the speakers. Be inspired and guided by exceptional people who will help you see the exhibitions through a different lens. The museum invites you to discover the exhibition Brussels Queer Graphics through the eyes of Joelle Sambi. Joelle Sambi, born on a linguistic border between Brussels and Kinshasa, speaks out, manifests and produces a wide range of writings: short stories, novels, slams, poems, documentaries, radio programmes and militant sites... Through these traces, she explores a maze mixing struggles, desires and necessities. A nomadic soul, she lifts and removes layers from the boxes of normative identity, sanding text, oiling images, soaping the stage. From post-colonial soil to lands of origin, she uses her voice as a migrant, lesbian, Afro-feminist or permanent exile writes not to live, but to abuse, to the point of hearing herself live. Anger, Fusion(s) and Creations. Reservation : https://www.eventbrite.be/e/billets-through-the-eyes-of-joelle-sambi-748305039517

  • Price

    Catégorie 1: 0,00 € - Enfants: 15,00 € - Normal: 35,00 €

Join us on December 10 from 11am for a brunch and enjoy a convivial moment with your loved ones, family, friends or colleagues to discover the Design Museum Brussels. The museum team is delighted to welcome you to its end-of-the-year brunch, a warm and festive event full of discoveries. Explore the museum, its collections and the permanent exhibitions, and visit the exhibitions Christophe Gevers, the architecture of the detail, Brussels Queer Graphics and Resonances. Encounter between Art Nouveau and plastic design. For children, imagination and discovery of the collections during a creative workshop around our collections are waiting for you. Last but not least, take the opportunity to visit our shop to find the perfect end-of-year gift. Program : • Brunch – 11am > 2pm • Permanent and temporary exhibitions Free access to the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The museum team will comment and guide you through them - Christophe Gevers, the architecture of the detail: 11.30am (NL) & 1pm (FR) - Brussels Queer Graphics: 12.15pm (FR) - Resonances. Encounter between Art Nouveau and plastic design: 11.30 am (EN) • In the museum reserves The museum team will show you the treasures hidden in the reserves and share with you the specifics of the Design Museum Brussels collection. - Tour of the reserves (10p. max.) : 12pm (FR) & 1pm (EN) • Kids’s workshops (6-14 yo) Explore the exhibitions and be inspired by the shapes, colors and materials. Then put on your designer's suit and compose, glue and create your own piece of furniture in the most unusual shapes. - 11.15am – 12.15pm (NL) - 1pm – 2pm (FR) Practical information When: 10.12.2023 from 11am to 2pm Where: Design Museum Brussels Admission fee: 35€ (adult) / 15€ (6-14 yo) / free (<6 yo) • Admission includes the entrance to the museum, the brunch, the permanent and temporary exhibition and the activities. Info: info@designmuseum.brussels / 02 669 49 21 Reservation (BEFORE 4/12 ! ) : https://shop.utick.net/?pos=DESIGNMUSEUMBRUSSELS&module=ACTIVITYSERIEDETAILS&s=05E27548-0E57-9454-0BCC-7F087C440C15

On December 14, get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating world of the exhibition Brussels Queer Graphics during an exceptional evening at the Design Museum Brussels. Meet the museum team and the exhibition’s co-curators, be dazzled by the artists of Cabaret Mademoiselle, and dance the night away to GEM&I’s spellbinding dj set. If you are feeling thirsty or hungry, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered! A bar and foodtruck will be available on site. A unique evening to celebrate art, diversity and creativity with us! Program: - 7pm: Doors open and Meet the team in the exhibition Brussels Queer Graphics - 8pm: Drag show by Cabaret Mademoiselle (Susan from Grindr et Chéri·e Chapstick) - 9pm > 11pm: GEM&I (Dj set) - 11pm: End of the party Price: admission to the evening is free. The bar and foodtruck are paying (payment by card). Info: info@designmuseum.brussels / 02 669 49 21 Reservation: https://BrusselsQueerGraphics_Party.eventbrite.be