SINGAPORE - The Red Dot Design Museum Singapore will get a new lease on life by the end of this year. It will permanently relocate to the Marina Bay City Gallery, the museum said in a statement on Tuesday (June 20).

The new museum at 11 Marina Boulevard will feature galleries that will host exhibitions of award-winning designs. It will also expand its Market of Artists and Designers (MAAD) marketplace, which will be organised at Marina Bay.

The museum has hosted some 646,000 visitors and 700 events since it opened 12 years ago in 2005.

It was founded in Germany in 1955, and is known as the world's largest exhibition of contemporary design. It houses about 2,000 international design objects.

Its second museum in Singapore is its first and only in Asia. The museum here is also home to the Red Dot Award: Design Concept, an international design competition introduced in 2005.

Its current space at the Red Dot Traffic Building will make way for the Ministry of Law, which is expanding its adjacent Maxwell Chambers.

The museum's lease of the iconic Red Dot Traffic Building, at 28 Maxwell Road, ceased at the end of April this year, it said.

Renovation works have started at the Marina Bay City Gallery, which is undergoing a six-month refurbishment.

The museum will release more details about its highlights later this year, its spokesman Elvin Seah told The Straits Times.

He added: "There is a smaller space inside the museum, but we're excited about the public spaces around it. We're hoping to hold more activities which will add to the vibrancy of the Marina Bay area."

Mr Ken Koo, Red Dot Asia's president, said: "The focus of the next chapter of the museum will be on enhancing or creating opportunities and platforms that encourages, harnesses and presents the creative endeavour of the country and of the community."