A shortlist of 5 architect-led groups has been introduced within the competitors to steer the British Museum’s renovation of its Western Vary galleries. The formidable overhaul includes revamping greater than a 3rd of gallery area on the London establishment.
The high-profile architect David Chipperfield—more and more the architect of selection for museum chiefs—is on the record. He led an enlargement of London’s Royal Academy of Arts that was accomplished in 2018 and designed a significant addition to the Kunsthaus Zuricj in Switzerland, which was inaugurated in 2020.
Which architects have made the shortlist?
The Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh can be within the working. Her group contains the artist Ali Cherri who works with movie, sculpture, set up, drawing, portray and different media to discover geopolitical and cultural histories. Ghotmeh designed the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London and has additionally been commissioned to design a up to date artwork museum within the AlUla heritage area in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
There’s a joint submission from Eric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects. Fobert is one other architect skilled at museum tasks; he was the lead architect for the most important redevelopment of the Nationwide Portrait Gallery in London, which re-opened final 12 months, and likewise doubled the exhibition area at Tate St Ives as a part of an extension undertaking on the Cornish area.
One other shortlisted candidate is the established apply OMA, co-founded by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, which has accomplished a variety of notable arts commissions together with Aviva Studios-Manufacturing unit Worldwide arts hub in Manchester, UK. OMA can be a part of the group behind the brand new extension deliberate for the New Museum in New York.
In the meantime 6a Architects, who remodeled the non-profit gallery Raven Row in London’s east finish and designed the enlargement on the South London Gallery, is one other contender.
Environmental campaigners beforehand referred to as on potential architects not to participate within the contest attributable to BP’s involvement within the renovation
Western Vary shortlisted candidates. Courtesy of the British Museum
How will the winner be determined?
The shortlisted candidates will participate in a sequence of “design workout routines” on the British Museum to evaluate their ideas round exhibition design and dealing with the historic structure. The entries might be displayed within the Spherical Studying Room from December; the profitable entry is because of be introduced early 2025.
An enormous swathe of the British Museum’s show area—encompassing the “Western Vary” which at present homes collections resembling Historic Egypt, Greece and Rome—is about to be redesigned below the revamp. The Western Vary covers a 3rd of the museum’s general gallery area, in addition to back-of-house areas, totalling 15,650 sq. metres.
The advanced of areas vary in age from the unique 1850s buildings designed by Robert Smirke, in addition to later additions resembling Gallery 10 and 22. “All the buildings are in want of improve to fulfill modern constructing efficiency requirements, and plenty of comprise extremely vital heritage constructing cloth,” the museum says in a press release.
Candidates might be judged by a panel comprising ten members, chaired by George Osborne, the chair of the museum board and former member of parliament. Different panellists embody the Irish architect Yvonne Farrell and Meneesha Kellay, senior curator, modern on the Victoria and Albert Museum. They are going to be joined by the British Museum’s former interim director Mark Jones and present director, Nicholas Cullinan.
Museum grasp plan
The Western Vary overhaul is a part of the broader museum masterplan which additionally features a new museum Vitality Centre, which can section out the usage of fossil fuels, changing them with low-carbon applied sciences. This undertaking—partly funded with authorities help—ought to save 1,700 tonnes a 12 months of carbon dioxide, making the establishment extra sustainable. The museum additionally opened a brand new £64m storage and analysis facility in Berkshire earlier this 12 months referred to as BM_ARC.
The price of the total masterplan undertaking is more likely to attain a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of kilos, presumably greater than a billion. In a controversial transfer, the oil and gasoline firm BP is to provide £50m over the following decade to assist fund the redevelopment. In response to this, earlier this 12 months environmental campaigners referred to as on potential architects not to participate within the contest.
