On Display

As an object of design and architecture, both a place of exchange and a social marker, the store plays a central role in our urban landscape and in the history of our commercial practices. From October 12 to March 5, at the Design Museum Brussels, the exhibition On Display. Designing the shop experience offers a look at these places of seduction nestled at the heart of our heritage and culture, between "shopping experience" and innovation laboratory.

Designing the shop experience

As a showcase and vector of modernity, the retail space has challenged architects and designers since the first bourgeois stores in the early 19th century until the development of global design, consumerism and the emergence of retail design in the 20th century. The boutique of yesterday and today offers a field of experimentation for designers and architects: from the first formal research of Adolf Loos to the achievements of Marc Newson, through the search for a global identity with the AEG brand and the mythical Olivetti boutiques. Questioning the evolution of our aesthetics and our exchange practices, the On Display exhibition traces the impact of design in our daily environment through the concept of the store. Furniture, archival documents, interior design, displays or advertising media, the visit to On Display bears witness to the many experiments and store concepts that have marked the history of design and commercial architecture.

Through this new focus, led by curator Benjamin Stoz, the Design Museum Brussels continues its exploration of the fields of design creation and its impact on our society and our daily lives.