V&A Contemporary Glass Gallery
London

The Märit Rausing Gallery

The Contemporary Glass Gallery was created in 2004, as a response to the large collection of contemporary objects, which the Museum has collected in the last ten years since the original Glass Gallery (also by PRS and GuM) opened. The Gallery was designed as a temporary exhibition space with large cases, which can be rearranged by the curators according to the exhibition theme. There is a small store adjacent to the Gallery in which display components can be kept, to allow the department to reorganise the Gallery with everything to hand.

The lighting was designed to be flexible and combines an overhead lighting rig, the form of which follows the decorative panelised ornate ceiling. A large screen, 4m wide with a drop of 5m can be lowered in front of the window wall to allow large scale films to be shown demonstrating the making of some of the pieces on display, and different studio glass techniques.

Award

European Museum of the Year Award 2003

Consultants

Engineers: Arup

Lighting: DHA

Graphic design: V&A Design

Display Cases: Glasbau Hahn

Quantity Surveyor: Turner & Townsend

Planning Supervisor: Quoin Consultancy