Victoria and Albert Museum increases. 150 years after its founding, the museum – one of the world’s most important museums dedicated to the applied arts – is building two new satellite sites in London’s Stratford Park. Currently under construction at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, V & A East Storehouse It will open to the public in 2024, while V&A East Museum, on the Stratford Waterfront, and is scheduled to open in 2025.
Cover: Exterior view of the new W&A East Museum at the Stratford Waterfront, by O’Donnell + Tuomey (c) O’Donnell + Tuomey, 2018
V & A East Storehouse
Designed by the New York-based architecture firm Diller Scofidio + RenfroPowered by a London based company Austin Smith: Lord, V&A East Storehouse is a 16,000 square meter / 172,200 square foot building designed to house and preserve more than 250,000 items, 350,000 books, and 1,000 archives. The Storehouse will invite visitors to explore and immerse themselves in the V&A’s collections of fine and applied arts.
Blurring the boundaries between public space and private space, the V&A East Storehouse will combine research facilities and reading rooms with galleries, performance spaces and creative studios, all in one experimental warehouse building.
The aim of the Storehouse will be to show the public why things are collected, how to care for them, store them, display them, and reveal the latest research. New flexible forms of presentation objects and co-production projects will also be tested to highlight different narratives and perspectives.
The V&A collection will be punctuated by large architectural parts and interior arrangements that previously required more than permanent display. Among these is Edgar J. Kaufmann’s studio furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s.
The V&A East Storehouse will present an in-depth view of the work of artists and designers through exhibitions that will range from ceramics to fashion, from fine art to graphics through to modern and contemporary design.
Makes interior views of W&A East Storehouse, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. (c) Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Edgar J. Kauffman Office, (c) ARS, New York and DACS, London 2018.
To be displayed at the W&A East Storehouse.
V&A East Museum
Designed by the Dublin-based architecture firm O’Donnell + TommyThe V&A East Museum is a five-story building measuring 7,000 sq m / 75,300 sq ft. Inspired by the shape of the evening dress designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1954, and by the Japanese concept of “Ma” or “the space in between,” the new V&A East Museum will provide spaces for meetings, exhibitions, festivals, immersive art installations, and nightly events.
The main exhibition hall will feature thematic performances that celebrate contemporary international artists and designers. Two group exhibitions will explore global manufacturing and innovation through new acquisitions, commissions and live activations offered alongside group performances.
O’Donnell + Tuomey improved the concept of the museum by creating a “design bar”
which wraps around the interior of the V&A East Museum. This will be filled with collection items and commissions, expanding the exhibition experience into the circulation spaces as visitors climb into the building.
The exterior of the museum will be a three-dimensional folded structure made of precast concrete. Sustainability was central to the design and construction of the Victoria and Albert East Museum, which will meet BREEAM’s excellent standard when completed, with features including photovoltaic panels, rooftop implants and terraces to encourage biodiversity.
Exterior view of the new W&A East Museum at Stratford Waterfront, by O’Donnell + Tuomey (c) O’Donnell + Tuomey, 2018
Interior view of the new W&A East Museum at Stratford Waterfront, by O’Donnell + Tuomey (c) O’Donnell + Tuomey, 2018
W&A East Museum, honoring ceremony, December 2021. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum.
Tops the W&A East Museum in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, December 2021.
(c) The Victoria and Albert Museum.