Victoria and Albert Museum

A competition to redesign the old boiler houses at the Victoria and Albert Museum provided an opportunity to challenge the brief and create a continuous ribbon which becomes floor, roof and access ramp taking the visitor from Exhibition Road to a new subterranean exhibition space.

The team working on this project decided to break through the screen and through the floor with a ribbon thrown across the courtyard and down into the exhibition spaces below. Where the ribbon rises up off the ground, it becomes the roof for a new visitor entrance and cafe and then the ramp to the subterranean spaces.

The project was shortlisted in the final 20 entries of an architectural competition, the winning proposal having now been constructed.