British Museum Visitor Welcome Pavilions Competition Shortlist London, BM building contest

British Museum Visitor Welcome Pavilions Competition Shortlist in London

10 October 2024

The British Museum announces shortlist of five consultant teams to lead the design of a new visitor welcome experience

Location: Bloomsbury, central London, England, UK

• The Visitor Welcome Programme project brief asked for proposals for a new and improved welcome pavilion and public realm at both the north and south entrances of the most visited attraction in the UK, with over 6 million visitors annually.

• The invited designers formed consultant teams to develop high-quality, flexible and sustainable proposals, with a clear end-of-life plan that will account for the re-use of any structures erected on the site.

• The British Museum has now shortlisted 5 of those teams – each one led by landscape and public realm designers who are listed on Lot 4 of the Greater London Authority’s Architecture + Urbanism Framework.

• The project is intended as a rapid, high-quality response to improve the welcome experience to the Museum and will serve as a precursor to a permanent project to reconsider the relationship of the Museum buildings to the surrounding public realm in a later phase of the British Museum’s Masterplan.

British Museum Competition Shortlist, London

London 10 October 2024: The British Museum has shortlisted five teams in its search for a team of landscape designers, architects and public realm consultants to develop new Visitor Welcome Pavilions for the Museum’s estate in central London. The multidisciplinary teams have been convened by design practices on Lot 4 of the Greater London Authority’s Architecture + Urbanism (A+U) Framework, whose specialism is listed on the A+U Framework as “Landscape, Green Infrastructure and Public Realm”. The shortlisted practices all completed an invitation to tender (ITT) process in September 2024.

The shortlisted teams are:

Collective Cultures (OMMX, AANF, Msoma Architects, YAA Projects)
with J&L Gibbons

East Architecture and Hayatsu Architects
with Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape

Periscope
with Assemble

Publica
with Carmody Groarke

Studio Weave
with Wright & Wright Architects, Webb Yates Engineers, Tom Massey Studio and Daisy Froud

The new Visitor Welcome Pavilion project is intended to help progress plans to make the British Museum the most welcoming and accessible museum in the world. In the past year, visits to the Museum have exceeded pre-Covid levels to reach 6.2 million annually, making it the UK’s most popular attraction.

The brief asks the teams to make proposals for high-quality, flexible and sustainable pavilions and public realm that will improve the welcome experience to the Museum. The project will also pave the way for a permanent reconsideration of both entrances to the Museum and the surrounding public realm in a later phase of the British Museum’s Masterplan project.

The Masterplan is a project that will restore and renovate the British Museum’s iconic Camden site, ensuring the extraordinary collection is housed in buildings and galleries fit for the 21st century. It includes the Western Range project, which is currently in the second phase of an international open competition to find a design team that will work with the Museum to reimagine over a third of its gallery space.

The agile nature of the Visitor Welcome Pavilion brief has been established to enable an improved welcome while recognising the significance of the Western Range project in determining the future direction of the Museum experience. The brief calls for a high-quality design that will allow the Museum the flexibility to explore options for future scenarios. It also calls for a clear end-of-life plan that will account for the re-use of any structures erected on the site.

Alice Fraser, Head of Capital Projects: Masterplan at the British Museum, said:

“The British Museum is the most visited attraction in the UK. This project brief has been established to ensure that the 6 million people that make the journey here every year are given a fantastic experience from the moment they step through the gates.

“Our long-term intention is to bring forward permanent improvements that account for growth in our visitor numbers and reimagine the relationship between our buildings and the wider neighbourhood as part of our Masterplan project. The Visitor Welcome Pavilion project will act as a precursor to that process, calling for high-quality designs that deliver an immediate improvement for visitors and allow the Museum the flexibility to explore new solutions to our welcome experience.

“The GLA Architecture and Urbanism Framework has given us access to a pre-selected pool of innovative and diverse practices capable of delivering high-quality proposals that will help us meet our objectives. I’m very excited to be calling on this talented group of designers and await the outcome of the procurement with anticipation.”

The shortlist of consultants will each receive a fixed fee to develop concept designs, which will be evaluated by the Museum before the contract to progress a single design to RIBA Stage 7 is awarded towards the end of 2024.

Collective Cultures (OMMX, AANF, Msoma Architects, YAA Projects)

with J&L Gibbons

Collective Cultures, clockwise from top left:
Adam Nathaniel Furman
Nana Biamah-Ofosu
Hikaru Nissanke
Johanna Gibbons
Jenny Hill
Bushra Mohamed
Jon Lopez
Neil Davidson

Collective Cultures is a group of diverse practitioners (OMMX, Atelier ANF, MSOMA Architects & YAA Projects) who have come together to build on their shared experiences of living in UK. They work with local communities and untold histories to shape fairer, richer and more resilient environments. They recently opened a porcelain colonnade in Croydon, an exhibition on Tropical Modernism with the V&A, and launched an initiative connecting young people with decision-makers in the built environment called Young Policymakers.

J&L Gibbons is an established and visionary Landscape Architecture studio based in London. The practice began in 1986 and is renowned for its innovative and holistic design process combining research and an open-minded approach to design. The practice is driven by a desire to safeguard the deep ecologies that shape the character of a place. J&L Gibbons have recently completed the Urban Nature Project for the Natural History Museum in London and the Inger Munch Pier for the Munch Museum in Oslo, with Tracey Emin.

East Architecture

with Hayatsu Architects and Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape

From Left to right:
Lewis Paine (EAST), Nichamon Rattanakijanant (Bhsla), Cecile Solnon (EAST), James Brisco (Bhsla), Takeshi Hayatsu (Hayatsu Architects), Dann Jessen (EAST), Julian Lewis (EAST), Ethan Loo (Hayatsu Architects), Georgia Gollogly (Hayatsu Architects), Judith Lösing, East Director, not pictured:

Both East and Hayatsu Architects are based in Hackney, East London. The practices have formed a unique and closely meshed collaboration that is skilled in designing public realm, landscape and buildings. They will be supported by Bradley Hole Schoenaich landscape architects.

East has previously completed the award-winning public square for Bermondsey Square in London and has designed the public realm for the recently completed high-profile mixed-use development at Norton Folgate; a conservation area.

Hayatsu Architects has completed pavilions in Milton Keynes Station Square, and a clock tower and market canopies in The Blue Market Bermondsey in London.

Periscope

with Assemble

Periscope (L) and Assemble (R):

Periscope and Assemble are two London-based practices that have come together to collaborate on the British Museum Visitor Welcome Programme. Periscope is a Landscape and Architecture practice and Assemble is an architecture practice constituted as a partnership with 17 partners.

Periscope’s London work includes nature recovery projects in Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Lewisham and Redbridge together with streetscape / public realm projects such as Gascoigne Road in Barking which was co-designed through public engagement with local people. The practice is also the lead masterplanner for the UK’s largest timber framed, zero carbon project ‘The Phoenix’ in Lewes, Sussex.

Assemble have a depth of experience developing innovative and sustainable projects within complex historical contexts including their refurbishment of a 19th Century train depot for Luma Atelier in Arles, France, an Edwardian baths for Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, and a the creation of a number of temporary theatres and cinemas across London and the UK.

Publica

with Carmody Groarke

Victoria Jessen-Pike, Director, Publica / Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke of Carmody Groarke:

Founded by Lucy Musgrave, Publica is a twenty-strong research-led urban design and landscape practice with 15 years of experience studying, strategising for, and improving London’s public realm. Completed projects include the transformation of Hanover Square and the public realm improvements to Bond Street and Burlington Gardens.

Carmody Groarke is an architecture studio of over 40 people based in London. The design approach is led by research and innovative thinking to deliver transformative projects in cultural, historic and urban settings. Founded in 2006 by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke, the studio has developed a reputation for designing and delivering distinctive, well-made buildings within the UK and Europe for a wide range of public and institutional clients. Recent projects include a temporary museum for Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House in Scotland, a new-build pavilion at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, and a significant refurbishment and extension to the Design Museum Gent in Belgium

Studio Weave

With Wright & Wright Architects, Webb Yates Engineers, Tom Massey Studio and Daisy Froud

TeamStudioWeave.jpg Studio Weave and (inset, clockwise from top right): Tom Massey, Daisy Froud, Steve Webb (Webb Yates Engineers), Clare Wright (Wright & Wright Architects):

Studio Weave is an architectural practice based in East London, UK. We build new connections between materials, history and culture. The practice has developed an international reputation for delivering a wide range of extraordinary projects in cultural, educational, heritage, public realm and residential sectors. Recent works include Lea Bridge Library and gardens, Vestry House Museum and gardens and the critically acclaimed Gold Medal winning WaterAid Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. These projects have been recognised through several prestigious architectural awards, most recently a RIBA National Award 2023 and a Civic Trust Award 2023.

Over the years, Wright & Wright has established a reputation for producing elegant, functional and timeless architecture. The practice’s completed buildings, include Lambeth Palace Library and St John’s College, Oxford.

Webb Yates Engineers is an award winning structural, civil and building services engineering design practice. Sustainability and an enjoyment of the collaborative creative process are central to its philosophy.

Daisy Froud is a freelance strategist and facilitator with over 20 years’ experience of convening and facilitating groups of community stakeholders and residents, and of delivering community engagement and participatory design processes for cultural organisations and public realm.

Based in London, Tom Massey Studio designs award winning gardens for private and commercial clients, as well as for festivals and shows in the UK and overseas. Tom’s work has won multiple awards and widespread recognition, including being listed in House & Garden magazine’s ‘Top 50 Garden Designers’.

BM Masterplan Design

The British Museum’s Masterplan project will restore and renovate the British Museum’s iconic Camden site, extend to new locations, and ensure its extraordinary collection is housed in buildings and galleries fit for the 21st century.

The scale, complexity and importance of Masterplan means it will be one of the most significant cultural redevelopment projects ever undertaken. Projects currently in progress include the recently completed British Museum Archaeological Research facility (BM_ARC) in Reading, and a new Energy Centre for its main site in the London Borough of Camden, which will phase out of the use of fossil fuels.

In August 2024, The British Museum announced a shortlist of five architect-led consultant teams in its search for a team that will work with the Museum to reimagine over a third of its gallery space. Stage two of the Western Range competition will run until December 2024, after which there will be a display of the shortlisted candidates’ entries in the Museum’s iconic Round Reading Room. The outcome of the competition will be announced in early 2025.

The winning team will work with experts across the British Museum to develop designs for the Western Range that respond to the Museum’s sensitive historic buildings, ambitious decarbonisation plans, and the ongoing process of reimagining the display and care of collections.

The five shortlisted lead consultants for the Western Range competition are: 6a architects, David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects & Jamie Fobert Architects, Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, and OMA.

British Museum Visitor Welcome Pavilions Competition Shortlist information from BM, 101024

Previously on e-architect:

29 August 2024

The British Museum announces shortlist of five architect-led teams for major renovation of its Western Range Galleries

Location: Bloomsbury, central London, England, UK

British Museum Competition Shortlist News

The shortlisted teams are:

Team 1: 6a Architects
Team 2: David Chipperfield Architects
Team 3: Eric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects
Team 4: Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture
Team 5: OMA