Design Museum London's Time Capsule

This morning—smack dab in the middle of the London Design Festival—Design Museum London broke ground on its new building designed by Dutch firm OMA with interiors by architect John Pawson. Britain's stronghold of contemporary international design is moving quarters from its perch on the South Bank of the Thames to the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, a 1960s-era concrete shell. There isn't usually much to see at a groundbreaking besides, well, a patch of ground, but Design Museum went beyond, burying a time capsule to be opened in 2112. They invited the likes of Sir Terence Conran (the museum's founder), Zaha Hadid, and Norman Foster to submit items they deem of utmost importance to our time.*

Slideshow

The exterior of the 1962 Commonwealth Institute (designed by Robert Matthew of Johnson-Marshall Partners) in its current state.

*For more future design classics, we have a few ideas of our own.

Terence Conran: The Way We Live Now

This exhibition marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday, and delves into the designer's impact on contemporary life in Britain. The show spans his career, from post-war austerity through to the new sensibility of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, the birth of the Independent Group and the Pop Culture of the 1960s, to the design boom of the 1980s and on to the present day.
John Pawson: Plain Space

"John Pawson Plain Space," a retrospective of British architect John Pawson's work, is on view at London's Design Museum until January 2011.
Tomorrow’s Specials

Slide into that booth or belly up the bar to learn what’s next for restaurant design. You’ll know before the maître d’ does.
Design Hotels Book: 2010 Edition

The best part of traveling is rarely the hotel.
This Weekend: 11.19-11.22

This week we're highlighting a slew of show openings around the world and in the United States focusing on big-name designers and big-name ideas.
Chat with Jasper Conran of The (New) Conran Shop

The Conran Shop's new look for its reopened Marylebone store in London; plus, a chat with Terence Conran's son Jasper, recently anointed head of the company.
Urban Africa and Sustainable Futures

This weekend marks the end of two exhibition's at London's Design Museum.
A Knight's Retail

"I can never understand why people employ decorators," posits Sir Terence Conran, a man whose surname is synonymous with design.