Victoria & Albert Museum launches design contest for £30m extension

The Victoria and Albert Museum is to hold a design competition this autumn for a major extension.

It will fill the Boilerhouse Yard site where the £70 million Spiral — scrapped in 2004 after its avant-garde design was criticised — was intended to go.

The V&A wants a more classical design, with a piazza on the same level as Exhibition Road, and 1,500 square metres of exhibition space underneath it.

Project director Moira Gemmill said: "We want a new semi-public space." The V&A has received eight design studies from architects for the £30 million project.