Bauhaus spirit lives on

Yuan says the 7,000 artifacts bought years ago are unable to fully reflect the change of design in the 20th century, so the museum bought more than 100 key items in the past year when designing the exhibition.

Wang Jianjun, curator of the exhibition, describes some of the displayed artifacts as milestones in the design industry and "the most highlighted treasures in the museum".

No 14 Chair, also known as the bistro chair, was designed by Austrian cabinetmaker Michael Thonet in 1859 and is his most famous product. The design is still widely used in pubs around the world today. By 1930, 50 million such chairs had been made, and they were introduced into China in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). An original 1859 work is set in the center of one hall of the exhibition to show its crucial status.

Another section of the exhibition features the stories of 17 influential designers of the 20th century to recall their great contributions to people's lives today.

Red Blue Chair, a work from 1917-18 by Dutch designer Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, is inspired by his compatriot, the painter Piet Mondrian. The chair is considered to be a pioneering example of furniture that can be easily assembled, much like today's Ikea products.

Frankfurter Kitchen, designed by the Austrian designer Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky in 1926, is the prototype of the integrated kitchen of modern time.

"We can find that designers in the 20th century did not consider themselves as artists and began to get rid of complicated plans," Wang says.

"It's difficult to set a uniformed criterion judging fine art works, but there is such a yardstick in design - that is, to make life simpler."

In the third section, the juxtaposed Coke bottles and typewriters from different ages may also echo this principle, revealing the connection between influential brands and good designs.

According to Yuan, modern Italian menswear design and old Hollywood film posters are two other pillar collection categories in the museum.