Extensive refurbishment of one of the V&A’s most important gallery spaces, carefully stripping back the interior to reveal the dramatic original architecture.
The Fashion Gallery is home to one of the V&A Museum’s most important collections. Eckersley O’Callaghan worked with 6A Architects to carry out an extensive refurbishment, providing revamped spaces for permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Part of the original 1909 Aston Webb building fabric, the gallery’s architectural impact was limited by the addition of a mezzanine in the 1960s. By carefully stripping back the interior, the quality of the original structure has been revealed.
The new scheme works in harmony with the circular geometry of the space. The mezzanine floor has been upgraded to meet current museum requirements and several new elements have been inserted into the space.
These include a slender white steel balustrade, a white steel staircase, a bespoke terrazzo lift, and three new circular fiberglass lighting rings – each nine metres in diameter – hung from the trusses that support the dome above.
The setting of the Draco Room, a highly decorated trompe l’oeil piece of an eighteenth-century interior, was carefully improved to integrate it more effectively into it’s location within the gallery.
