Design Museum

The Design Museum on Kensington High Street in London, originally opened in 1962 as the Commonwealth Institute, features Britain's first hyperbolic paraboloid roof spanning over 3,000 square meters. Sir Terence Conran contributed £17.5 million toward an £83 million interior redevelopment led by OMA and John Pawson, preserving the historic structural shell to display nearly 1,000 modern design items.

London · from the walk “Kensington High Street: Shop, Eat & Explore” · audio ~4 min · Generated

224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG

What was the original purpose of the London Design Museum building on Kensington High Street?

Look at the striking building right in front of you. That dramatic, swooping roof... it looks like a copper tent about to take flight into Holland Park. But this building has lived two very different lives.......... This building was opened on the sixth of November, nineteen sixty-two, by Queen Elizabeth the Second herself. But back then, it wasn't a design museum at all. It was the Commonwealth Institute... a permanent exhibition designed to inform the public "how the rest of the Commonwealth lives."

...... Now, look up at that roof. It was the First British example of a shallow pre-stressed concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof... and the largest, covering over three thousand square meters. The design was inspired by Mexican engineer Felix Candela, a pioneer of this dramatic shell structure. And here's a detail most people miss... twenty-five tonnes of copper for that roof were donated by the Northern Rhodesia Chamber of Mines. That's modern-day Zambia. The building itself was assembled from materials gifted by Commonwealth nations. The hardwood floors came from Nigeria and Ghana, while the aluminium for the window frames came from British GuiAna.......... But then... the money ran out. In nineteen ninety-three, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ceased funding the building's upkeep. By two thousand two, the trust closed the buildings completely and even pursued Delisting and demolition. This architectural gem sat vacant and decaying for over a decade.......... Enter Sir Terence Conran. The man who brought the duvet to Britain through his Habitat stores, who designed shops for Mary Quant, and who had a single obsession... making good design accessible to everyone. He had already founded the Design Museum in nineteen eighty-nine, following an innovative start as the Boilerhouse Project in the basement of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In twenty eleven, Conran donated seventeen point five Million pounds of his own money to move the museum here.......... The total transformation cost eighty-three million pounds. The Dutch firm Oma, led by Reinier de Graaf, reconfigured the interior, while minimalist architect John Pawson led the design. They essentially built a brand new building Inside the old one... while preserving that irreplaceable shell.......... And it worked. The move gave the museum three times more space than its previous location. Entry to the permanent collection is completely free. If you pop inside, head to the top floor... nearly a thousand items reveal the history of modern design, from the London twenty twelve Olympic Torch and the Sony Walkman to the Apple iPhone and even the British road signage system.......... Oh, and one more thing for the shoppers among you. The museum runs three shops, and as a charity, every purchase supports the museum. The gift shop alone is worth a visit... it's a curated showcase of brilliant contemporary design you can actually take home.

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