I went to visit what I could of the new Design Museum, which is due to open in November in Kensington High Street. Actually, there is not much to see apart from the three posh apartment blocks by Rem Koolhaas, which made the restoration of the old Commonwealth Institute possible; and the shop, which has been designed by John Pawson, who has also designed the museum inside. I’m unusual in that I was never taken to see the Commonwealth Institute as a child, so I have no nostalgia for its displays, just admiration for the great arc of the roof, designed by Robert Matthew of RMJM:-
When I went to the Institute in 1997 as its Chief Executive what surprised me most about the building (which I too never had the opportunity to visit as a child) was the interior of the galleries – for obvious reasons much less noted than the hyperbolic paraboloid roof see from outside. The different elliptical shapes of the upper two levels and the central platform combined to confuse the eye to the extent that one became unaware of being in a perfect square. Having had the unwelcome task of removing the very old exhibits and finding a new future for the Institute and its place, its wonderful that a new, and hopefully more sustainable, use has been found for the galleries.
Yes, I think it’s a good and interesting use for the building with John Pawson’s very minimal interior architecture offsetting the robustness of the grand 1960s interior space. Charles