v&a museum, london

London, England

This was a complex, major refurbishment project undertaken at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The project comprised the refurbishment of the Royal College of Arts premises, together with new construction and refurbishment of adjacent areas within the overall RCA project. The was for the purpose of providing the Conservation Departments within the Museum with tailored office and workshop accommodation appropriate to the specific requirements of the individual departments.

Refurbishment of the RCA premises consisted of stripping out all existing MEP services within the three storey building and then adding intermediate mezzanine levels to provide a six storey building fully fitted out and giving approximately 50,000ft2 of accommodation. New construction included a single storey building in the adjacent courtyard providing workshops for the use of the Textiles and Sculpture Departments. A new lift and stair tower, together with additional toilet accommodation was also provided to link the RCA Project and adjacent galleries within the Museum. Due to the complexities of the MEP services within the project, together with the challenge of decanting and migrating existing departments and personnel, the project was carried out in two main phases and executed whilst the museum galleries were open to the general public. Client: Victoria & Albert Museum.