The British Museum Western Range Architectural Competition

The British Museum has launched an international competition to find a design team to work with the institution as it reimagines over a third of its gallery space in central London. Rather than seek a concept design, the competition seeks to identify a design team that can work with the museum and its curators on an ongoing basis – making this a unique opportunity for the successful design team. The British Museum Western Range Architectural Competition is open for entries until Friday 21st June.

The British Museum International Architectural Competition

The competition marks a further step in the delivery of the Museum’s Masterplan, following the completion later this year of the new Archaeological Research Centre in Reading – a state of the art 15,000m² storage and research facility – and planning approval for a new Energy Centre to be built – which will phase out the Museum’s use of fossil fuels.

Stage one of the competition asks the teams to submit a standard questionnaire and company information, alongside a single A1 sheet with images, drawings, references, diagrams and up to 500 words that explain the team’s understanding of the physical environment that a 21st century museum will require for its collection and audiences, as it looks to the future. In addition, teams are asked to submit no more than 5 sides of A4 outlining their approach to design quality, heritage & context, technical & logistical challenges, sustainability, and balancing innovation against budgetary constraints.

Applicants will be judged by an expert panel that will be comprised of ten members, chaired by George Osborne. He will be joined by leading experts in this field including Yvonne Farrell, Meneesha Kellay, Mahrukh Tarapor, and Sarah Younger. Mark Jones and Nicholas Cullinan will also sit on the panel alongside representatives from the British Museum’s Board of Trustees: Tracey Emin, Charlie Mayfield and Alejandro Santo Domingo.

The western side of the Museum holds a third of its overall gallery space currently housing collections from Ancient Egypt, Greece (including the Parthenon Sculptures), Rome, Ancient Assyria and the Middle East.

The winning team will need to put forward a proposal which is both a contemporary vision for how to present the collection for a modern day visitor experience, but remains sympathetic to the original Smirke building. They will also need to consider how the design can accommodate the Museum’s ambition to remain open to visitors for the period of building works.

The competition is accepting entries from all design teams who feel they have the key characteristics the panel are looking for. Overall they must demonstrate they have the creative ability and design flair to put forward an innovative proposal which reimagines the building but keeps the collection at its heart and recognises how it can be displayed, accessed and preserved for the future. The panel will also be looking for expertise in sustainability – both environmental and economic.

Due to the size and complexity of the Museum’s site and its Grade 1 listed building status, the purpose of the competition is not to find a final winning design. Instead, the judging panel are looking for an experienced and inspirational architect-led team to put forward ideas and proposals to work up with the Museum and collaboratively develop a final design. A public display of the proposals by the final teams will take place this winter.

The British Museum Western Range Architectural Competition is open for entries until Friday 21st June. Full details are available here.

The competition tender documents are available to view here.