Diller Scofidio + Renfro has won an international competition for the design of a new V&A collection and research center to be located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London.
Designed in collaboration with Austin-Smith:Lord, the scheme seeks to broaden public access to collections of art, design, and performance which are not currently on display. The scheme forms part of V&A East, an initiative which also includes a new museum planned for Stratford Waterfront, designed by RIBA Gold Medal winners O’Donnell + Tuomey.
The DS+R scheme was chosen from a shortlist of five firms, comprising 6a, Gareth Hoskins Architects, Haworth Tompkins with AOC, and Robbrecht en Daem with DRDH. In awarding the competition to DS+R, the jury praised the scheme’s clarity, ambition, and originality, and its success in giving visitors, researchers, and staff new ways to interact with the V&A’s extensive collections.
It is thrilling to contribute to a new wave of rethinking how London's cultural institutions can reconnect to the city - from the Cultural Mile to the developments emerging in Queen Elizabeth Park. We’re excited to start experimenting with the V&A on this new model for collection storage and public display at Here East. Planned from the inside-out, V&A East will be like stepping into an immersive cabinet of curiosities—a three-dimensional sampling of the eclectic collection of artifacts, programmed with diverse spaces for research, object study, workshops, and back-of-house functions.
-Elizabeth Diller, Partner, DS+R
The scheme represents the latest step forward for the V&A East project, which also includes a new museum planned for Stratford Waterfront designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey. The initiative to prolong the use of the Olympic Park site, dubbed ‘Olympicopolis’ has seen collaboration between Allies and Morrison, O’Donnell + Tuomey and Josep Camps to design a new cultural and education quarter, hosting branches of UCL and the Smithsonian Institute.
News via: DS+R
Allies and Morrison and O'Donnell + Tuomey Chosen to Design London's Olympicopolis
Allies and Morrison, together with O'Donnell + Tuomey and Josep Camps/Olga Felip Arquitecturia, has been chosen ahead of David Chipperfield, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and three other teams to design London's Olympicopolis culture and education quarter.