2025 – A Special Year: The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich Celebrates 150 Years

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich looks back on 150 years of history. This anniversary offers the opportunity to honor the museum's rich past, highlight current developments in design, and look towards the future.

Look forward to a jubilee year full of inspiring exhibitions and exciting activities that bring the dialogue about design to life and set new accents.

In January, we invite you to celebrate with us. To kick things off, a varied program awaits you at our headquarters at Ausstellungsstrasse 60:

Guided tours

Every Sunday, there is an architectural tour of the museum. For those who want to discover the museum from a different perspective, the Design Indoors and Outdoors tour takes place on Thursdays.

Activities

The Open Studio invites everyone to discover, experiment, and get creative. Additionally, you have the opportunity to print your own clothing item with an iconic motif from the museum's collection at the screen printing workshop. On Thursdays, enjoy entertainment with the classic game event Spielrausch and gain intriguing insights at the Design Lounge Talk. 

Listening sessions, performance and concert

There are also exciting events for music lovers: at Quiet Please! you can consciously listen to music and leave the daily grind behind, PANK surprises with a musical performance and installation unveiling, and at the OSOMO Sunset Horizontal Concert you can enjoy a deep listening experience while lying down.

Beautiful, rare, unique

The (R)Ausverkauf of the museum shop offers the opportunity to browse posters, publications, and design objects, and take home a new favorite piece. Additionally, in January, the stationery brands Le pigeon voyageur and Bienvenue Studios will be our guests, offering their design products for you to discover and purchase.

Ring in the Evening Somewhere Else

Every Thursday evening, the museum café transforms into a cozy bar where you can enjoy and linger at a large table with homemade snacks, drinks, and music.

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich has an impressive history that dates back to 1875, when it was originally founded as the Arts and Crafts Museum of the City of Zurich. From 1898 to 1933, the museum was housed in the National Museum, as it did not have its own premises.

In 1933, the museum and the School of Applied Arts, established in 1878 and now known as the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), moved into the distinctive building on Ausstellungsstrasse – an outstanding example of modernist architecture in Switzerland.

In 1968, the museum opened its second location, the Museum Bellerive on Lake Zurich, which housed craft objects until 2017. In 2014, new exhibition spaces were opened on the new ZHdK campus in the Toni-Areal in Zurich-West, uniting all four collections of the museum under one roof.

After extensive renovations, the main building on Ausstellungsstrasse was reopened in March 2018. Since May 2019, the museum has also managed the Pavillon Le Corbusier on behalf of the City of Zurich as a public museum.