At the edge of London’s Holland Park, John Pawson’s newly designed masterpiece waits for more enthusiastic reviews.
Image courtesy of: Clothes Horse
London has always been known for its museums, that much is for sure. But when it came to design inspiration, it was the Victoria & Albert Museum that people visited… until now! V&A, the 165-year-old museum, is presently up against some major competition. In the heart of London, near Holland Park, the London Design Museum recently re-opened to a lot of acclaim. The backstory: until quite recently, the Design Museum was housed in a former banana warehouse near the Thames River. Luckily, the famous British architect, John Pawson, was selected to design this museum with enough space to put its permanent collection on view for the first time.
Reinventing the new space was vital… now, light floods the central hall where an enormous 50-foot-tall space is capped off by an undulating curved roof. An impressive set of stairs spiral up the hall, allowing visitors to view items such as the yellow 1990 Sony Walkman we probably all remember from our childhoods. The lower stairs can act as benches, the intent is to invite visitors to take a seat and look around.
The museum has 1,000 permanent pieces on display, and there’s now enough room for additional temporary shows. We love the newly designed interior and agree with all the early reviews which rave about this new London treasure!
The top floor of the museum houses the permanent collection. Among the most fun objects is a scale model of a London tub train viewed from the perspectives of both the designer-manufacturer and the user.
Image courtesy of: UK Business Insider, photographed by: Helene Binet
The 200-seat amphitheater is reminiscent of an ancient Greek stadium.
Image courtesy of: UK Business Insider
As you can imagine, it was tough to take out the original concrete floors. This was done by propping the roof on a temporary steel structure 20 meters above the ground.
Image courtesy of: UK Business Insider