MRC’s competition for the V&A’s Exhibition Road project elicited an outstanding response from the international design community.
The dedicated microsite set up to publicise the process attracted twenty-one thousand visitors who initiated over ninety-three thousand page views, generating excitement around the project and contributing to excellent media coverage.
One hundred and ten architects from across the world entered the competition presenting the museum with a very strong field from which to choose a designer, for this, the last undeveloped quadrant of the museum’s historic South Kensington site.
Sir Mark Jones, the museum director, was delighted by the quality of the submissions, saying:
‘The shortlist comprised some of the most exciting and creative architectural practices working today.’
The winning team’s prize was the commission to design a purpose-built new gallery, a courtyard set within the beautiful historic facades of the V&A’s Grade l listed buildings and a new entrance on Exhibition Road which is approached through the famous Aston Webb screen.
Amanda Levete Architects was the unanimous choice of the jury who commented that the practice demonstrated “a very good grasp of the intuitive use that visitors will make of the new space and its relationship to the forthcoming pedestrianisation of Exhibition Road”.
The new entrance opened, to much acclaim, in June 2017. The project was awarded the RIBA London Award 2018 and RIBA London Building of the Year 2018.
