{"id":51892,"date":"2026-03-30T14:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/?p=51892"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:20:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:20:48","slug":"designing-childhood-at-design-museum-brussels-how-children-shaped-the-future-of-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ket.brussels\/en\/2026\/03\/30\/designing-childhood-at-design-museum-brussels-how-children-shaped-the-future-of-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Childhood at Design Museum Brussels: how children shaped the future of design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From 1 April to 20 September 2026, Design Museum Brussels presents Designing Childhood. A History of Design for Children<\/em>, a co-curated exhibition with the Centre Pompidou that traces how 20th-century design imagined, shaped and reflected childhood. Through furniture, school equipment and contemporary pieces, the exhibition reveals how the child gradually became a distinct figure in the home, in society and in the design market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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C- Courtesy Archivo Museo Kartell, ITA<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of children\u2019s furniture is also a history of social change. Far from being a marginal category, it became a space for experimentation, where designers tested new forms, new materials and new ways of thinking about everyday life. In the 20th century, children\u2019s furniture combined playfulness and practicality, while also mirroring wider shifts in family structures, education and technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also : Christophe Gevers: The Architecture of Detail at Design Museum Brussels<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By drawing on the collections of both Design Museum Brussels and the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition builds a dialogue that runs across the century. It begins with early examples such as Pierre Chareau\u2019s children\u2019s rooms in the 1920s and Sylvie Feron\u2019s work in Belgium in the 1930s, then moves through school furniture by Jean Prouv\u00e9 and Arne Jacobsen, and later the post-war \u201cschool-room\u201d concept developed by Marcel Gascoin in France and Jules Wabbes in Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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