A new design museum has opened. Where, you ask? Online. Sweden has taken a leap into the digital future in launching a virtual compendium of its rich design past, present, and future. Spearheaded by the nation’s touristic arm, Visit Sweden, the museum celebrates the Nordic country as a design destination, focusing on the ubiquity of its contributions to the fields of architecture, design, and fashion.

“Are you unknowingly sitting in a room furnished by Swedish design when reading this?” the curators ask on the museum’s website. “Our design is present everywhere, but there is more to it than the cool contemporary minimalism it is known for.”

The museum’s first exhibition, “Live from Sweden,” explores how design factors into the quotidian lives of Swedes around the country. Comprised of five films and three Facebook live streams, published earlier this month (and still viewable), the show, as it were, chronicles gender neutral fashions, an eco-friendly apartment building, and the functionality of a “plug lamp” whose dual use is as a charging station.

The common thread among all of these objects, experiences, and places is their sheer functionality and accessibility among all strata of the nation’s population.

A scene from a video in "Live from Sweden," the museum's inaugural exhibition. Photo: Courtesy of Swedish Design Museum

"'Live from Sweden' lets visitors catch a glimpse of Swedish design objects while they are being used by ordinary Swedes as part of their everyday life,” explained Jennie Skogsborn Missuna, chief experience officer at Visit Sweden. “Objects that are made to be used, and used again—not put on a pedestal or locked behind glass.”

The result is a delightfully democratic look at design in a format that could hardly be more democratic itself—accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

To visit the museum, head to swedishdesignmuseum.com.