In London, museums undergoing architectural evolution

Things are swinging in London's museums. In the national museums in particular, the jewels of the British crown, which are currently multiplying renovation, extension, and transformation projects. In the spring, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) inaugurated the V&A East Storehouse, a building designed by New Yorkers Diller Scofidio + Renfro, to store reserves and make it a popular attraction at the same time. At the same time, the National Gallery reopened its west wing, the Sainsbury Wing, whose space was reconfigured by the German Annabelle Selldorf. The British Museum, meanwhile, announced a veritable transmutation, under the leadership of the Franco-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh. Another upcoming project, the V&A East Museum, a new exhibition space located, like the V&A East Storehouse, on the edge of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park , in this eastern part of the capital which has been rapidly developing since the 2012 Olympic Games, is due to open in the coming months.

There is nothing concerted about this. The movement simply reflects the dynamic nature of venerable institutions that have never ceased to evolve since their creation in the 19th ^century , to adapt at the time. “Each one develops its own master plan, ", considers Paul Gray, the operational director of the National Gallery, and which responds to specific objectives. The new buildings that the Victoria and Albert Museum has been constructing since the opening of the Dundee branch in Scotland in 2018, respond to the demand, very strong today, to see the national collections benefit more equitably to different territories. This is a question that we also ask ourselves, but we have chosen to respond to it in another way, by lending works to provincial museums."

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