V&A Dundee – Architect: Kengo Kuma

The V&A Dundee is a Scottish museum focused on design and applied arts. Its iconic building was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
Along with pieces from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s permanent collection, in London, V&A Dundee will extensively showcase contemporary art and design from Scotland, thus becoming one of the leading cultural centers in the region.

Above: a view of the V&A Museum in Dundee designed by Kengo Kuma; photo © HuftonCrow

Kengo Kuma’s building

In 2010, Kengo Kuma and Associates won the competition for the first museum in Scotland devoted to design, prevailing over competitors such as REX, Sutherland Hussey Architects, Steven Holl Architects, Snøhetta and Delugan Meissl Associated Architects. The V&A Dundee is part of a larger redevelopment project of a 240-hectare area on the city’s waterfront.

Located on the River Tay waterfront and with an overall floor area of 8,500 square meters (91,400 square feet), the new museum accommodates 1,650 square meters of exhibition space, education rooms, laboratories, a shop, a cafe, and a restaurant.
The museum’s core is a fascinating, cavernous space, clad in local timber, designed to accommodate concerts, live performances, and other events to make it a welcoming social space for the city and its community.

The three-story ultra-low-carbon building is heated and cooled by an innovative 800,000 kWh/year hybrid geothermal/air heat pump system.
Kuma’s building also features a peculiar facade cladding consisting of 2,500 pre-cast rough stone panels, up to 4m wide, conceived to create the appearance of a Scottish cliff face.

Kengo Kuma at the museum in January 2018; photo Alan Richardson

Collection, permanent exhibition, and program of events and activities

The museum’s permanent galleries present about 300 objects designed in, made in, and/or historically related to Scotland dating from the late Middle Ages to the present.
Comprising furniture, textiles, metal works, ceramics, fashion items and garments, architectural models and drawings, engineering, and digital design objects – pieces on view are presented in three thematic galleries. The first gallery focuses on the collaborative process of conceiving and making design; the second on the influence of design on our society, habits, and everyday life; and finally, the third gallery presents the creative and imaginative side of design.

Iconic objects on show in the permanent exhibitions cover a broad range of themes, from old applied arts to cutting-edge technology, and include a 15th-century Book of Hours illuminated manuscript; the 13-meter-long Oak Room designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the Ingram Street tearooms in Glasgow in 1907; a diamond-winged tiara made by Cartier for Mary Crewe-Milnes, Duchess of Roxburghe; dresses by Edinburgh-born fashion designer Holly Fulton; an elephant-shaped case designed by influential Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi in the early 1970s; video-games created by Glasgow-based studio The Secret Experiment; and snap40, a cutting-edge wearable A.I. device conceived to monitor a hospital patients’ vital signs designed by Christopher McCann and Stewart Whiting.

The V&A Dundee Museum’s program of events and activities features temporary exhibitions, such as the inaugural exhibition “Ocean Liners: Speed and Style”; educational activities and workshops especially aimed at children, young people, schools, and families; and special events.

Images

View of the museum from the River Tay; photo © HuftonCrow

V&A Dundee, site plan with ground floor, east elevation, and sections. Images ©KKAA

Exterior views of the V&A Dundee; photos © HuftonCrow

The museum’s lobby; photo © HuftonCrow

Scale model of the Oak Room designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the Ingram Street tearooms in Glasgow, whose original full-scale fit-out will be on view at the V&A Dundee

Diamond-winged tiara made by Cartier for the Duchess of Roxburghe in 1935; photo by Jasper “Yogi” Gough

Man’s golf sweater in hand-knitted two-ply wool, Shetland Islands, made in the 1920s

Eduardo Paolozzi, elephant-shaped promotional case in linoleum for a catalog from Nairn Floors, 1972-73

The Snap40 wearable wireless device designed by Christopher McCann and Stewart Whiting which uses artificial intelligence to monitor hospital patients’ vital signs

All images courtesy of V&A, and V&A Dundee.