Reconstruction of the Design Museum in London by OMA

Today, the newly renovated Design Museum has reopened in the London district of Kensington after eight years. It is located in the heritage-protected Commonwealth Institute building from 1962, designed by Johnson-Marshal & Partners. The authors of the renovation are the star team OMA, Allies & Morrison, Arup, West 8, and John Pawson.
OMA was originally invited in 2007 to assess the potential of the Commonwealth Institute as the new home for the Design Museum, which was originally in inadequate conditions in a former banana warehouse on Shad Thames (this functionalist building was purchased by Zaha Hadid in 2014).
The redevelopment of the Commonwealth Institute cost £80 million. The heritage-protected building had to be fully preserved and could only be modernized to meet the needs of 21st-century use. After the renovation of the facade and roof, the energy efficiency changed, but the original character was maintained. John Pawson was commissioned to renovate the interior. The landscaping around the museum was carried out by the Dutch studio West 8.

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