On 25 April 1886 the Museo della Permanente opened in the Neoclassical building designed by Luca Beltrami.
Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century, the Permanente, together with Accademia di Brera (Brera Academy of Fine Arts), represented the most important venue in Milan for art exhibitions.
Since 1908, the Permanente organized group and solo exhibitions by the most important artists (many of whom were members of the association) and movements of that period, including Divisionism, Futurism and Novecento.
During the Second World War, in 1943, the building was seriously damaged by the bombings.
In 1950 -1953 the reconstrsuciton by architects Achille Castiglioni and Luigi Fratino followed rational and functional criteria.
Over the past 15/20 years, the exhibition space has not undergone significate interventions.

This intervention, executed in April 2015, marked significant gestures to return the museum to classic and timeless modern qualities of the Castiglioni restructuring. The project, with the design by Tokyo based nendo for their exhibition ‘ nendo Works 2014-2015 ‘ was the groups largest exhibition to date in Europe.

The exhibition opened for Milan Design 2015.