Hot 50: DESIGN MUSEUM

Deyan Sudjic’s directorship of the Design Museum is bearing rich and exotic fruit. The London museum staged an exemplary events programme in 2009, with outstanding shows on fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, Spanish star Patricia Urquiola, graphics genius Javier Mariscal, architect David Chipperfield and German industrial designer Dieter Rams, among others.

But the team there – particularly Sudjic – earns a place in this year’s Hot 50 because of the deal struck in 2009 to move the museum from London Docklands to the Commonwealth Institute in west London.

With a scheme by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture having achieved planning approval from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and English Heritage, the new venue – renamed the Parabola – promises to be great. The museum has now launched an international trawl for another architectural practice to work 2 alongside OMA on the project.