The museum exhibits architecture, urban planning and design under its current acting director Karin Nilsson.

The Museum of Architecture was founded in 1962 at the initiative of the National Association of Swedish Architects (Sveriges Arkitekters Riksförbund) as a private foundation.

[3] On 20 June 2024, the government announced an investigation to explore how ArkDes and Moderna Museet can be merged into a single national authority, to be completed before 31 January 2025.

[10] The permanent exhibition presents Swedish architecture through the ages in drawings, models, photographs, and historical objects.

[11] Other spaces are dedicated to thematic exhibitions which explore contemporary architecture and design, alongside historical shows.

[17] In 2014 ArkDes hosted “Blockholm”, an exhibition based on a transfer of Stockholm’s land data into Minecraft to create an exact, full-scale representation of the Swedish capital.

[23] These have included: “Public Luxury”, an exhibition “about architecture, design and the struggle for public life”;[24] “The Future Starts Here”, an exhibition made in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum exploring the relationships between design and technology;[25] “Space Popular: Value in the Virtual”, a project exploring Virtual Reality, architecture and urbanism;[26] the culminating edition of the Cruising Pavilion; and an exhibition exploring the prefabricated concrete panel curated by Pedro Ignacio Alonso and Hugo Palmarola.