Design Museum must rival Tate, says Conran

The designer who helped transform the tastes of the nation hopes London's new Design Museum will become a must-visit destination to rival Tate Modern.

Sir Terence Conran, who founded Habitat and a string of restaurants, said the development in Holland Park should become a "design Olympics" showcasing the best of world design. I hope it will be the place where politicians will want to bring their foreign visitors to show off what will be a spectacular place," he said.

"It will be a must-visit place just as Tate Modern has become a must-visit place. It is the culmination of really everything that I have ever been aiming for in my life."

Sir Terence founded the existing museum at Shad Thames in 1989 and is selling its lease to help fund the new one, three times the size, in the former Commonwealth Institute. It is scheduled to open in 2014. Planners need 70 per cent of the £22million re-fitting costs in place before work is permitted to begin at the Grade II* listed building. This Thursday councillors will discuss offering a £2.6million loan so work can start. Before then, the museum is hosting an 80th birthday exhibition exploring the Conran influence on culture.

It spans the years of post-war austerity, when he worked at the Festival of Britain, to his company's contemporary furniture designs for Marks and Spencer.

The show was "a bit nerve-racking", he said. But he was proud that he was credited with helping to improve British taste. He added the Government should do more to support British designers.

There was so little manufacturing in the UK that designers had to go abroad to get their products made.

The Way We Live Now, sponsored by M&S, Design Museum, tomorrow until March 4, admission £10.