Designs on success with Dundee’s £80.11 new museum

The architect of Dundee’s £80.11million V&A Museum of Design saw his vision revealed for the first time last week.

Kengo Kuma visited Dundee shortly after the temporary cofferdam – which allowed the museum to be built into the river – was removed. This involved digging out 12,500 tonnes of stone and cutting out a structure of vertical metal sheets which was constructed on the bedrock of the river. The building is inspired by Scotland’s cliffs.

This work revealed the dramatic river-facing front of V&A Dundee, which juts outs into the River Tay.

The exterior walls are also complete, with all 2500 cast stone panels now hung on V&A Dundee’s complex walls, which curve both vertically and horizontally.

Dundee’s £80.11million V&A Museum of Design

These panels were made in moulds, weigh up to two tonnes each and span up to four metres. The size, shape and placement of the panels varies around the building, creating changing patterns of shadows as the sun moves around the museum.

V&A Dundee will open in 2018, with the date to be announced. The project is on schedule and on budget.

Kengo Kuma said: ‘My inspiration always starts from the place where the project will be. In the past I visited Scotland many times, this very beautiful country, and I’m truly in love with the Scottish landscape and nature.

‘I really hope once finished this project will attract many people from the UK, and around the world, to the city and the museum. I hope as well that people from Dundee will use it as an everyday part of their city; that they will go there to enjoy the building with its surrounding public space and find a harmonious relationship between the museum, the riverside, the city and themselves.

‘I am delighted and satisfied with what we’ve achieved so far. The realisation of the strong façade is great. We were able to express the dynamic scale of the interior, too – just as we had planned.’

The coverings concealing the exterior of Dundee’s V&A Museum of Design were removed last week

V&A Dundee will be the first building in the UK designed by Kengo Kuma, the internationally renowned architect who is also part of the team designing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium. His vision is for the museum to be a new ‘living room for the city’, welcoming everyone to visit, enjoy and socialise, and to reconnect the city with its historic River Tay waterfront.

Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, said: ‘It is a real pleasure to have the architect of V&A Dundee, Kengo Kuma, with us today to see the incredible progress that has been made in bringing his vision to life. Everyone working on the design and construction should be incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved.

‘V&A Dundee has been out in communities across Scotland since 2014 with talks, workshops and exhibitions, meeting thousands of people and sharing our passion for the importance of design. We can’t wait to welcome everyone when we open the museum next year.’

A view over the Tay from the new V&A Museum in Dundee

V&A Dundee is part of the V&A’s UK-wide and international expansion and will be the only V&A museum anywhere in the world outside London. It will be the first ever dedicated design museum in Scotland: an international centre for design, a place of inspiration, discovery and learning.

V&A Dundee has been established in close partnership with the V&A Museum in London, drawing on its collections, curatorial expertise and exhibitions. V&A Dundee is run independently with its own director and, as well as bringing V&A exhibitions to Scotland, it will develop its own exhibitions.

It will present the largely untold story of Scotland’s outstanding design achievements, bringing together in one place the world-renowned V&A collections with loans from other collections in Scotland and beyond.

These collections will be accompanied by some of the best of the V&A’s international touring exhibitions, making Dundee the principal location in the UK outside London to receive these globally significant exhibitions.

V&A Dundee is being developed with support from the Scottish Government, Heritage Lottery Fund, Dundee City Council, the UK Government, Creative Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, University of Dundee, Abertay University and many trusts and private donors.