The Six Dundee V+A Finalists

The Six Dundee V+A Finalists

Dundee Waterfront has seen gradually creeping development for a while, but all that looks set to accelerate with the plans for a new extension for the Victoria and Albert Museum set in the city.

The competition features entries from six architects, the first of which is Viennese firm, Delugan Meissl Associated Architects. Their design features a gradually rising podium that rises from the River Tay, almost like a shallow hill, with the main body of the museum designed to appear precariously balanced on the crest of it, but in reality anchored by a central core that it shares with the podium.

The second design by Japanese practise, Kengo Kuma & Associates, plays with the idea of the museum centered around a vast public hall with a horizontally layered façade encasing it and the exhibition rooms in a manner dictated by the mass of the interior. The museum would be split into two distinct sections that would arch above the plaza and give clear views from it towards the River Tay.

New York based REX has penned a building that's a visual prismic cluster which divides the museum contents up into a number of groups whilst stretching the upper floors out around a central hub. The design derives inspiration directly from the flowering petals of a blue bell right down to the colour of the facades that will be reflective blue glazing.

The lower profile proposals for the competition are by Snohetta which is set in the River Tay and connected to the mainland via a broad but gently inclined walkway that cuts the building in half. The impression is of the museum floating on the river complete with a gently undulating roof. In addition to this, with a nod towards green energy generation, it also includes a tidal power basin.

Perhaps the most monumental and least subtle design comes from Steven Holl Architects that makes a strong visual statement by rising out of the River Tay, to a height of 50 metres above it with no less than eight floors in the structure. The north elevation as seen from the dockside presents a long angular mass that is supposed to symbolise a blowing sail clad with a stainless steel mesh.

The sixth and final design comes from Sutherland Hussey Architects, a Scottish firm who have come up with something that uses exposed concrete piles as a perimeter skirt around its lower parts and a transluscent glass screen around the upper portion. The end result is something that could perhaps be mistaken for a high tech factory but is more reminiscent of old Dundee than the new future the museum should usher in.

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