The Design Museum of Barcelona. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Design Museum of Barcelona, which boasts a 70,000-plus-piece collection, opened to the public earlier this month. The museum’s massive collection was formed by merging the city’s existing Museum of Decorative Arts, Ceramics Museum, Textile Museum, and Cabinet of Graphic Arts. The institution, which presents everything from medieval fabrics to modern furniture, encourages visitors to explore the evolution of decorative arts and design throughout history.

The Design Museum is located within the Disseny Hub Barcelona, a building in Placa de les Glories, a once-bustling area that has been the subject of an ardent revitalization project. Designed by the Barcelona-based architecture firm, MBM (Martorell, Bohigas, Mackay, Capdevila and Gual), the metal-and-glass-clad Hub includes a conference center, an education center, a library, an archive, an auditorium, and 16,400-square-feet of exhibition space. The cantilevered structure sits adjacent to Jean Nouvel’s Agbar Tower -- a 38-story skyscraper that marks the beginning of Barcelona’s up-and-coming Poblenou neighborhood.

Four long-term exhibitions encompassing product design, graphic design, fashion design, and decorative arts are currently on view. “Extraordinary! Collections of Decorative and Author-Centered Art” offers a chronological overview spanning from the third- to the twentieth-century of objects from the museum, including ceramics, textiles, furniture, glassware, miniatures, clocks, and wallpaper; “Graphic Design: From Trade to Profession (1940-1980)” features over five-hundred posters, signs, advertisements, and other graphic pieces dedicated to the pioneers of graphic design; “From the World to the Museum: Product Design, Cultural Heritage” focuses on industrial design, presenting a monograph itinerary of the best product design in recent decades; and “Dressing the Body: Silhouettes and Fashion (1550-2015)” explores the evolution of fashion design over the centuries. In February 2015, the temporary exhibition “Design for Life” will go on view. The show will demonstrate the key role that design can play in providing solutions to everyday problems and improving the welfare of the public.

The new institution, which is led by Pilar Vélez, has been funded by the city of Barcelona and the government of Catalonia. The museum is offering free admission until the end of January 2015.