The RIBA has been quietly progressing proposals for housing its collections since it announced the end of its arrangement with the V&A. The South Kensington museum has been showcasing its collection since 2004.
The AJ can reveal that the institute has settled on a standalone museum to store and showcase its huge archives, and is considering several locations with spaces between 1,800m² to 3,700m² in the capital.
These include the former Museum of London site in the City of London, although it is understood that discussions are still at a very early stage.
This 1976 building on the edge of the Barbican estate, designed by Powell and Moya, is set to be demolished under plans by Sheppard Robson and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Their controversial London Wall West scheme was approved by then-communities secretary Michael Gove in 2024.
However, work has not yet begun on site which is currently being occupied by meanwhile uses that include a sixth-form centre.
The RIBA is thought to have taken inspiration from V&A East Storehouse, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which put the V&A’s collections on display earlier this year.
However, it is understood that the institute has gone cool on using a space at the same Here East location.
The RIBA would not comment on the speculation.
Under the current £85 million House of Architecture programme, the RIBA has allocated around £58.8 million to the Benedetti-designed refurb of its 66 Portland Place headquarters in central London. A further £26.2 million has been set aside for other improvements, including tech upgrades, a rebrand and the collections.
The AJ understands that the latest proposal for the collections would increase the total House of Architecture budget by roughly £15 million, potentially taking it to more than £100 million.
The institute has been working on creating its own, public-facing museum for some time. Speaking to the AJ before his departure as RIBA president on 31 August, Muyiwa Oki revealed its intentions to evolve its collections plans into an accessible museum.
‘We have updated our thinking as to what is fundable,’ he said, ‘and updated our goals to have something similar to the V&A East Storehouse, where it’s both a public attraction as well as back-of-house storage for the ever-increasing collection that we have instead.’
Current RIBA president Chris Williamson commented during his inauguration last month that a ‘museum of architecture’ was one of the three core pillars of the House of Architecture programme.
He called the project ‘an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity, not just the building, but the website, the outreach, and the idea of a museum of architecture, and those three things are the House of Architecture programme.’