Taking pride in heritage

The Heritage Lottery Fund is an essential revenue source for Britain’s cultural landmarks.

The Victoria & Albert Museum, London

A wide-reaching programme of improvements at London’s V&A received a setback last month when the Heritage Lottery Fund declined to award a grant for the construction of The Spiral, the museum’s ambitious and controversial extension plan conceived by architect Daniel Libeskind.

Nevertheless, a raft of additional galleries will open over the next three years. The first of these is the £1.1m Gilbert Bayes Sculpture Gallery, which opens in October and is designed by Eva Jiricna Architects, the lead consultancy for all the museum’s ‘future plan’ transformations.

Holmes Wood is creating graphics for the sculpture gallery and will also design graphics for the £10m V&A/Royal Institute of British Architects’ Architecture Gallery, designed by Gareth Hoskins Architects and set to open in November.

For the Architecture Gallery graphics, the consultancy has referenced the ‘grid-like title blocks’ that are a characteristic of architectural drawings, according to project manager Kirsty Morrison.

Holmes Wood also overhauled the V&A’s entire signage scheme last year (DW 22 April).

Initial funding for the Architecture Gallery includes a £3.3m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and an anonymous donation of £1.8m.

The V&A’s in-house design team is to create graphics for the upcoming Glass Gallery, designed by Penny Richards Architects and opening in November. It will also handle graphics and 3D designs for the Metalware gallery, which opens in December.

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles