A t-(n, d, λ) design over Fq, or a subspace design, is a collection of ddimensional subspaces of F n q , called blocks, with the property that every t-dimensional subspace of F n q is contained in the same number λ of blocks. A collection of matrices in F n×m q is said to hold a t-design over Fq if the set of column spaces of its elements forms the blocks of a subspace design. We use notions of puncturing and shortening of rank metric codes and the rank-metric MacWilliams identities to establish conditions under which the words of a given rank in a linear rank metric code hold a t-design over Fq. We show that for Fqm -linear vector rank metric codes, the property of a code being MRD is equivalent to its minimal weight codewords holding trivial subspace designs and show that this characterization does not hold for Fq-linear matrix MRD code that are not linear over Fqm .2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 11T71, 05B05, 05E20.