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COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTSBefore The Design Museum, there was The Boilerhouse Project, which was in the Victoria & Albert Museum between 1982 and 1986. One of the earliest objects acquired was a 1968 Mobil petrol pump designed by Eliot Noyes, which gives some idea of the sheer scope of what would become the Design Museum of today. But a couple of mid-20th-century pieces also stand out. Wells Coates’ Ekco AD-65 radio from 1934 combined both radical design and commercial appeal: up to that point radios had been almost like furniture, sitting in wooden cabinets. But the AD-65 was made in plastic, which made it not only cheap to manufacture, but more supplicant to interesting design: the circular shape would have been diffi cult to construct in wood. It became the ‘must-have’ of the day. Some 12 years younger, but looking like it comes from a completely different era, is a 1946 Vespa Clubman by Corradino d’Ascanio. Again, the iconic look was born of necessity: post-war, Italians needed a modern, affordable mode of transport. The patent was for “a rational, comfortable motorcycle offering protection from mud and dust without jeopardizing requirements of appearance and elegance.” Now 70 years old, the Vespa still boasts that elegance in spades.Opposite page: Vespa Clubman designed by Corradino dÕAscanio, 1946Top right: Detail of Vespa Clubman Above and below: Visualisation of the new Design Museum, opening in November Walk into the fi nal exhibition at the current Design Museum in London, and the fi rst thing you see are bikes on the wall. Sleek bikes that broke world records or won races, ridden by the most famous names in the sport, such as Eddy Merckx, Chris Boardman and Chris Froome. But also knocked about pushbikes, folding bikes and the Rover Safety Bicycle from 1888. One thing is immediately clear. For all the different materials – and uses – the basic shape of the bike has barely changed. As the Design Museum’s Director Deyan Sudjic said at the exhibition’s launch in November, bikes “are a bit like chairs and corkscrews. Almost perfect, but designers still want to have a go at tweaking them.”Cycle Revolution, then, is a celebration of everything that The Design Museum has stood for since Terence Conran redeveloped a banana warehouse on the South Bank in 1989 with the intention of “encouraging people to make things”. But in its sheer democratising power – everyone has experienced the thrill of riding a bicycle – the exhibition also throws forward to how The Design Museum might feel when it opens in new premises at the former Commonwealth Institute building on Kensington High Street in November. Because for the fi rst time, there will be a free permanent display of its collection, which includes everything from a Sony Walkman to Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell’s Paper Dress. “Design is for everyone,” says The Design Museum’s Chief Curator Justin McGuirk, “and though there have been times when the word has been associated with being somewhat ‘in the know’, if you stop and think, everything that has been manufactured has been designed in some way, whether it’s good or bad. To have a part of the museum which will be free and can explore the importance of good design is a really crucial step for us.”The aim of The Design Museum has been – and will continue to be – to look DESIGN MUSEUMwww.nadfas.org.uk NADFAS REVIEW / SUMMER 2016 25