Designmuseum Danmark

For anyone who has come to Copenhagen because of Danish design, Designmuseum Danmark is essential. It is the country's leading museum of design and crafts, founded in 1890, and it occupies the old Royal Frederik's Hospital on Bredgade, an elegant Rococo complex from the 1750s in the royal district of Frederiksstaden, a few minutes' walk from Amalienborg and the Marble Church. The hospital was Denmark's first public hospital, and the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard died here in 1855. In the 1920s the architect Kaare Klint, the father of modern Danish furniture design, converted the building into a museum, and his calm, ordered galleries set the tone for the visit. The museum reopened in 2022 after a two-year renovation, its most thorough since Klint's time, with restored facades, new marble floors, a new cafe and shop and eight new exhibitions. The heart of the collection is Danish Modern, the permanent exhibition of Danish design from the 1920s to around 2000, where you can see the furniture, lamps, ceramics, silver and textiles that made Denmark famous: chairs by Klint, Arne Jacobsen, Hans J. Wegner, Finn Juhl and Borge Mogensen, lamps by Poul Henningsen and much more, presented as a story of how a small country came to shape the look of the modern home. Other galleries explore older collections, including European decorative arts and a celebrated collection of Japanese art and objects, as well as themes such as pattern and the design of the future. Temporary exhibitions change through the year and range from fashion and posters to contemporary design responses to climate and health. The museum's garden, enclosed by the old hospital wings, is one of the loveliest quiet spaces in the city and is open during museum hours, and the cafe serves lunch, coffee and cake with seating in the garden. The museum is generally open from 10:00 to 18:00 with late openings on some Thursdays, and closed on Mondays; check the current hours before you go. Adults pay around 140 DKK, children under 18 go free, and the Copenhagen Card includes entry.

Why it matters: Danish design is not just a style but a philosophy of making useful, beautiful things for ordinary homes, and this museum explains where that came from. Klint and his students studied the proportions of the human body and historic furniture to create pieces that were simple, well made and comfortable, and the generation that followed, Wegner, Juhl, Jacobsen and others, took those ideas into the world in the post-war decades. Seeing the chairs side by side, from early prototypes to icons such as the Wishbone chair and the Egg, makes sense of what you will see in Copenhagen's shops, hotels and cafes.

How to visit well: start with Danish Modern, which is the core of the museum, and give it at least an hour. Then choose one or two of the temporary exhibitions, depending on your interests, and finish in the garden or the cafe. Two hours is enough for most visitors; design lovers will want longer. The museum shop is one of the best in the city for design books, prints and objects, so allow time there too. On a sunny day, take your coffee into the garden, which is an oasis in the middle of the city.

Bredgade is one of the most rewarding streets in Copenhagen for a design-minded walk. Head south past the Marble Church and Amalienborg towards Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn, or north to Kastellet and the Little Mermaid, which are ten minutes away. The street is lined with auction houses, antique dealers and galleries, and the design shops of the inner city, including those on Stroget and around Kongens Nytorv, are a short walk away. For a full design day, add the Danish Architecture Center on the harbour or a visit to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art up the coast.