Red Dot Design Museum: 2,000 inspirational exhibits at your fingertips
The best product design, from inventive USB flash drive to multifunctional stove to a hanging helicopter, awarded by an international expert jury: On five floors, the Red Dot Design Museum offers the largest exhibition of contemporary design worldwide.
All of the approximately 2,000 shown exhibits were awarded in the well-known Red Dot Design Award. On average, about 180,000 visitors per year see the shapely and highly innovative exhibits. The museum becomes experiencable as touching and testing most of the objects is allowed.
Every year, design experts from all over the world decide which products will be on display in the Red Dot Design Museum. They make up the jury for one of the world’s most important product competitions: the Red Dot Award: Product Design. In the course of long sessions, they test and discuss the products, assess their innovative design quality based on different criteria depending on their task and purpose, and ultimately decide which have earned the ”Red Dot” seal of quality and thus a place in the museum.
The inspiring atmosphere of the house is exuded mainly by its impressive architecture. Built between 1928 and 1929, the former boiler house of the colliery Zeche Zollverein served for many years as the power house for the complex, which was abandoned in 1986. The Zeche Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is one of the most significant industrial monuments of the 20th century and was thus listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
The boiler house, which today presents the international winners of the product design contest, had to be converted according to its new function as the Red Dot Design Museum. Red Dot initiator Prof. Dr. Peter Zec suggested Lord Norman Foster for the new direction of the architectonical characteristics. With his distinctive, yet gentle reconstruction, the well-known British architect created a concise style for the entire Zeche Zollverein.
To provide another exclusive venue for the design scene and its creative works, the second Red Dot Design Museum, located in Singapore’s central business district on the Maxwell Road, opened its doors in November 2005. It is part of and the main attraction of Red Dot Traffic, a creative centre in the city’s old police department.
After its renovation, the old colonial building became the embodiment of innovation and creativity and not only accommodates the museum but also creative companies like commercial agencies, schools or design studios. The importance of the Asian market for the global design scene is particularly pointed out by the Red Dot Award: Design Concept, which is organised in the booming city-state Singapore and whose awarded concepts and design visions are presented at the Red Dot Design Museum.
