JA Projects named on shortlist for V&A East Museum galleries fit-out
It has been announced in the Architect’s Journal that JA Projects are part of a ‘ raft of emerging talent that has been shortlisted in the contest to design two exhibition spaces inside the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A’s) new east London outpost’
Chosen from 35 submissions, the five teams picked for the next stage of the competition include rising stars such as Freehaus, OMMX, Citizens Design Bureau, JA Projects and Manijeh Verghese, the co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale.
The winner will draw up plans for a pair of £1.4-to-1.7 million gallery spaces within the O’Donnell + Tuomey-designed V&A East Museum, which topped out last December and is due to open in 2025.
The appointment will cover the design and delivery of two Why We Make collection galleries across two floors, sub-divided into 10 thematic sections, each presented as a series of ‘constellation-like’ displays. According to the V&A, the successful team will create a scheme that is ‘dynamic, active and captivating’, as well as being ‘grounded in sustainable practice’.
The institution said it wanted to embrace new approaches to museum display with galleries which were ‘audience-led, responsive, coherent, and welcoming’ and targeted younger audience and those who might have previously felt that museums were ‘not for them’.
The V&A East Youth Collective – a rolling annual paid opportunity for young east Londoners set up to help shape the museum’s design and content – will play a role in choosing the winning architectural team and take part in the ongoing design process through continued consultation and collaboration at key stages.
V&A East Museum forms the centrepiece of Stratford’s new £1.1 billion East Bank cultural quarter. O’Donnell + Tuomey’s 7,000m² waterfront building rises to 42.5m and has been inspired by an X-ray image of a 1954 Cristóbal Balenciaga dress and the Japanese concept of ma (‘the space between’).
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Read the full article in the AJ
Image credit:VA East Museum© Victoria and Albert Museum London