It was announced in 2010 that Japanese practice Kengo Kuma & Associates would design the new Victoria & Albert Museum at Dundee. Now in progress, the building will begin on site in earnest in 2013 and is due for completion in 2015. V&A at Dundee will be an international centre for design in Scotland, aiming to celebrate Scotland’s design heritage, host major international exhibitions and foster emerging creative talent. V&A at Dundee will have more than 1,500 square metres of flexible gallery space, with one of the largest dedicated museum-standard exhibition spaces in Scotland. There will be four galleries, hosting world-class design exhibitions (organised with the V&A and other national and international partners) alongside displays devoted to outstanding Scottish design – historical, contemporary and of the future. Social spaces also form an important part of a building that Kengo Kuma describes as ‘a living room in the city’.
Driven by Design Dundee Ltd – a partnership between the V&A, the University of Dundee, the University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise – is driving the project, and has secured additional funding from Scottish Government this year as part of The Year of Creative Scotland 2012. V&A at Dundee is a significant part of the regeneration of Dundee’s Waterfront, an ambitious 30-year project now well underway to reconnect the city to the River Tay. The project includes the development of a new riverside urban quarter, improvements in infrastructure, cultural projects such as V&A at Dundee and the rethinking of public spaces.
