The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich emerged from the Museum of Decorative Arts of the City of Zurich, which was founded in 1875. From 1898 to 1933, the museum did not have its own premises and was housed in the National Museum. After that, the museum and the School of Arts and Crafts, which had existed since 1878 - today's Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK - moved into the building designed by Adolf Steger and Karl Egender on Ausstellungsstrasse, one of the most striking examples of Neues Bauen in Switzerland. Even at this time, the depots of the four collections remained spread across various locations in the canton of Zurich. In 1968, the museum opened its second location, the Museum Bellerive on Lake Zurich. The arts and crafts objects were stored in the former villa dating from 1931 and the interface between art, arts and crafts and design was explored in exhibitions.

In 2000, the museum's sponsorship changed from the City of Zurich to the Canton of Zurich. In 2014, new exhibition space was opened in the new ZHDK campus in the Toni-Areal in Zurich-West and all four collections were brought together under one roof. At the same time, the museum temporarily ceased operations at its historic Ausstellungsstrasse location for extensive renovations. Following the renovation, the former Museum Bellerive was returned to the City of Zurich and the main building on Ausstellungsstrasse was ceremoniously reopened in March 2018.

Since May 2019, the museum has also been running the Pavillon Le Corbusier, which was extensively renovated and refurbished in the previous years, as a public museum on behalf of the owner, the City of Zurich, in order to communicate the work and ideas of the architect and artist Le Corbusier to a wide audience.

In 2025, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich will celebrate its 150th anniversary. This will be an opportunity to make the museum's unique collections accessible to the public in an unprecedented form. To this end, a new permanent exhibition and part of the spectacular archive will provide an insight into the wealth and diversity of the holdings in the previously inaccessible display depot on the Toni-Areal site.