Collecting architectural and construction components began with the creation of the first technical schools, industrial associations and exhibitions. This consisted in the Czech lands of unpreserved collection of the Czech Estates Engineering School in Prague (1718), from the room of samples and models of the Club for Awakening Industry in Bohemia (1834) and from annual exhibitions organized by the Association of Architects and Engineers (1865).

1891–1910
This was followed by a series of large exhibitions that included special anniversaries as well as an exhibition of the Prague Chamber of Commerce (1891–1908). For the last of these, Czech technology professors came up with the idea to create a museum of Czech science and technology. This was so that after the exhibitions the originals, models and architectural plans could be kept in the same building.
In 1908 the Technical Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia was founded and the architecture and building engineering collections were amassed in the Schwarzenberg Palace in the Hradčany part of Prague. The Technical Museum Club took assumed leadership of the museum.
Specialised groups – architecture and building engineering (in 1931 urbanism was added) oversaw the collections of building materials, master works and residential construction – though still lacking concept strategies. The call for the donation of artefacts and legacies met with little enthusiasm in their respective circles. Acquisitions were only made occasionally.

1910–1942
Part of the collection was made accessible to the public in 1910, but the opening of the first museum exhibit didn’t occur until 1917. It was thanks to the care of architect Alois Čenský, who held for many years the post of chairman of the architecture group, that the museum finally opened. Shortly after World War I architects (František Sander, Antonín Balšánek) began to leave their legacies to the museum. There lacked exhibition space for others, so their plans were stored in cabinets (Josef Zítek, Josef Schulz). In 1931, discussions on the construction of a new building for the technical and agricultural museum and on the method of exhibiting were held within the section of architects and building engineers. For instance Josef Bertl, the chairman of the building engineering group, suggested emphasising past development through the chronological arrangement of the exhibition rooms. Art historian Zdeněk Wirth was the first to come with the conceptual strategy of exhibiting building engineering, construction technology and urbanism.
World War II paralysed the activities within the Technical Museum. Its new building on Letná, begun in 1938 according to the project designed by architect Milan Babuška, was transformed in the post office of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The museum itself had to move in 1941 from the Schwarzenberg Palace to the (already at that time) inconvenient confines of the Invalidovna building in the Karlín section of Prague.

1942–1973
The difficult times paradoxically led to the search for better concepts for organizing the collections. Though archive documentation related to architecture and building engineering had been collected for many years, it was Zdeněk Wirth who initiated its proper organization. He recommended that the museum enlist the services of the research-proficient architect Ladislav Machoň, with whom he founded the Archive of Architectural Works (1942). Following the model of a museum’s organization principle, Ladislav Machoň introduced special inventory cards and a systematic acquisition process. The archive’s cataloguing came to a halt at the close of World War II due to spatial restraints.
The post-war period brought with it nationalisation (1951) and the institution’s re-organization (merging of sections), but didn’t return the better spaces for collections and exhibitions. The association now only had an advisory role in the (now named) National Technical Museum. A new generation and department staff replaced the previous one. This meant that the Architecture Department was now led by Vincenc Beer, founder of the photography collection, followed by Antonín Hloušek. Ladislav Machoň, on the other hand, was eventually expelled from the association.
In 1954 the department submitted a memorandum by which it wanted to resolve the crisis surrounding the architectural and building engineering collections and their specialised support. But the initiative came up empty and the collections were included under the Archive for the History of Technology and Industry.
 

1973–1991
The NTM’s independent department of architecture and building engineering was then created in 1973 to the credit of architect Vladimír Šlapeta, who led the department until 1991. It was during this period that the collections grew due to a significant number of legacies.
 

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