Five teams have been shortlisted to take part in a competition to help the British Museum find an architect-led team to develop designs for the Western Range at its site in Bloomsbury, London. The teams are led by 6a architects, David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects with Jamie Fobert Architects, Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, and OMA.
Each team's design approach is on display at the Museum.
Here is the exhibition entry from OMA.
What is your team all about?
OMA – and the team we’ve assembled to help modernize the British Museum – is equally obsessed with the past and the future. Everyone is a collaborator. We are critical and pragmatic, we combine radicality and modesty.
What is your big idea for the Western Range galleries?
Maximum impact, minimum intervention: transforming two underused, infilled courtyards modernizes the functioning and expands the potential of the entire British Museum.
The 21st Century Studio will be a sophisticated curatorial instrument, covering an arc from antiquity to the digital. A multi-story Cabinet of Cultures updates the Wunderkammer for today. Research Galleries are dedicated to study and display artefacts with innovative technologies. Vertical storage will reveal more of the British Museum’s staggering, world-affirming collection. The basement arches will be liberated for the mummies and more.
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Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum -
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum -
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum -
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum -
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum -
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum
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British Museum: OMA: Image 1
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British Museum: OMA: Image 2
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British Museum: OMA: Image 3
To find out more about architectural competitions, please call 020 8771 6445, or email competitions@colander.co.uk