Design Museum Brussels

The permanent exhibition at the Design Museum Brussels comprises two different collections. Belgian Design offers an overview of the history of design in Belgium and its identities. From Art Nouveau to contemporary creation, this exhibition tells the story of the key figures, movements, and avant-gardes that shaped it, as well as the achievements that defined it and the institutions that promoted it.

The pieces on display explore the formal experiments, innovations, and changes that have shaped the Belgian design landscape. Through the authors, their work, and the production of companies and publishers, Belgian design experiments with a way of storytelling: a careful selection of objects portrays the intangible environment and historical context in which Belgian design originated and flourished.

The Plastic Design Collection

There is also The Plastic Design Collection. This unique and colorful collection illustrates the relationship between design and plastics, from the Golden Sixties and their economic boom to the present day, but also our new relationship with mass production, consumer society, and sustainability.

It all began in 1987 when Philippe Decelle found a plastic Universale chair by Italian designer Joe Colombo in the trash in one of the municipalities in the south of Brussels. He realized that our society has a short memory and today burns what it admired yesterday. Over the years, Decelle has compiled a collection of several hundred plastic pieces (from everyday objects to works of art) from the Golden Sixties to the present day. In 2014, the entire collection was purchased by the Design Museum Brussels to form its permanent collection.

The 2,000 pieces in the collection, 500 of which are on display in the permanent exhibition rooms of the Design Museum Brussels, reflect how designers have used the incredible versatility of plastic over time and through different design trends. They show how their work has been influenced by politics, cultural behavior, technological innovation, and economic upheavals.