[1] Its foundation was inspired by the work of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, established in 1965.

Docomomo International was founded in Eindhoven in 1988 by Dutch architects Hubert-Jan Henket and Wessel de Jonge.

In 2010, the International Secretariat was relocated to Barcelona, hosted by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

Docomomo holds biennial international conferences where the people related to conservation issues gather and exchange information and studies pertaining to their scholarly research.

The docomomo Journal is an international periodical that, since 1990, regularly summarizes recent research on the sites and buildings of Modern Movement.