V&A and RIBA open UK’s first permanent Architecture Gallery and new Study Rooms
at the V&A – November 2004

Public opening: 18 November 2004

The V&A and RIBA will open a new Architecture Gallery at the V&A in November 2004, the UK’s first permanent architecture gallery. The gallery will feature highlights from their world-class collections of drawings, models, photographs and architectural fragments as well as important loans. The gallery has been designed as an introduction to architecture for students and the general visitor and will display 180 exhibits from across the ages featuring some of the world’s most famous architects and buildings. Highlights include a capital from the Pantheon, drawings by Palladio, Vanburgh, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe and a fly-through of Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Centre in Germany due for completion in 2005.

In November, the V&A and RIBA will also open a new Study Room in the Henry Cole wing of the V&A to the public. These extensive facilities will house more than 1 million drawings and manuscripts from the RIBA’s Drawings and Manuscripts Collections as well as the V&A’s collections of architectural drawings, photographs and archives. This will form the world’s most comprehensive architectural resource for architects, specialists and general audiences. It will represent every major British architect from the late 16th century to the present day and contain the national collection on British architecture.

The total cost of the new gallery, study room and archives is £10 million with supporting outreach, education and conservation work. The start of the project has been made possible by the Architecture for All fundraising campaign including a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £3.27 million and an anonymous donation of £1.8 million.

NEW GALLERY AND HIGHLIGHTS

The new gallery, located near the main entrance of the V&A, designed by Gareth Hoskin Architects, will offer a concise guide to architecture from different periods and across the world. It will include three thematic displays: The Art of Architecture, looking at architectural styles; The Function of Buildings; and Architects and Architecture, exploring the design process. There will be educational areas and a space for temporary displays, changing three times a year. As visitors enter the gallery, the first exhibit they see will be a gigantic isometric drawing of St. Paul’s Cathedral which will be on display for the first time at the V&A.

The Art of Architecture
The first section of the gallery looks at the development and principles of architectural style and how different styles have different meanings. It will feature a series of columns from different periods, dividing the space into bays. It will display corresponding artefacts and drawings illustrating styles such as the Classical and neo-classical, Gothic and Gothic revival, non-Western architecture and Modernism.

Highlights of this section include a capital from the Pantheon (2nd century AD), a section of Corinthian architrave (AD150) from the largest Roman theatre in North Africa (at Oxyrhyncus or El Bahnasa, Egypt) and a 19th century jewelled and lapus lazuli miniature set of columns demonstrating the five Orders.

Gothic and Gothic revival styles will be juxtaposed. Highlights include a huge 19th century plaster cast of a 13th century boss from Westminster Abbey and a magnificent 19th century model of the Palace of Westminster.

Superb examples of non-western architecture will include models of the Alhambra in Granada and the exquisite Japanese Gate at Nikko dating from the mid 19th century. One of the most valuable treasures is a display of 12th century North African Koranic friezes, each a metre long,

From the Modernist period, exhibits include a design model for the De La Warr Pavilion and a 1930s Gropius door handle. Contemporary models will include buildings by Nigel Coates, Richard Rogers and Nicholas Grimshaw.

The Function of Buildings
The second section will explore different types of buildings, from schools and houses to shopping centres and mosques, looking at how function influences design. The exhibits will be displayed on a series of tables along the centre of the gallery.

Among the models of houses on display will be a 1930s suburban London house, a traditional Japanese house and Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein.

A rare 18th century ivory model of Fort William in Calcutta will be a highlight of the area illustrating workplaces as well as a model for a 1960s purpose-built school in Bradford.

The contrasting models of public buildings will include a South Indian mosque, the 1930s Gatwick ‘beehive’ terminal, and a specially commissioned model of the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. Also on display will be a model of the Sea and Ships Pavilion for the 1951 Festival of Britain with miniature artworks by the artists themselves. The RIBA Award-winning BedZED, a sustainable housing development in Surrey, will also feature.

Architects and Architecture
The final section will explore the design process from first conception through to development, presentation and instructions to builders.

This section will include some of the most important drawings from the collections including works by Palladio (Villa Pisani, 1539-40), Vanburgh (early sketch for Castle Howard, 1695), Frank Lloyd Wright (All-steel house, 1937), Mies van der Rohe
(Library for the IIT, Chicago) and Norman Foster (GLA Building).

This section will look at different ways of building from timber frame to models of spanned roofs such as the 1850s British Museum Reading Room and a biome from the Eden Project.

Models on display will include roof shapes for the Sydney Opera House (late 1950s), and a virtual fly-through of Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany.

The final part of this section, Buildings in Context, will use the oldest model in the gallery, of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields (1721-6), to look at the changing urban context surrounding one of London’s best-known churches. It will explore how James Gibbs’ design was influenced by and influenced its surroundings and the development of Trafalgar Square to the present day.

Temporary exhibition space
In addition to the permanent gallery will be a small temporary exhibition space. The first display will be devoted to Great Buildings and will focus on drawings, photographs and manuscripts from the RIBA and V&A Collections.