V&A East Storehouse: A Radical Reimagining of the Museum Store
Bond Bryan is proud to celebrate the public opening of the V&A East Storehouse.
A pioneering new cultural facility in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with support from Austin-Smith:Lord and delivered by Bond Bryan, the 16,000m² facility is a world-first hybrid of working museum store, immersive visitor experience, and cultural infrastructure.
Part of East Bank — London’s ambitious new educational and cultural quarter — the Storehouse offers unprecedented access to the V&A’s national collection, redefining how the public engages with the inner workings of museums.
“V&A East Storehouse is a brand-new, groundbreaking museum experience in East Bank that will revolutionise access to the world’s leading collection of art, design and performance… It’s a hugely significant moment in our work to create the most ambitious cultural development in decades — helping us ensure London stays the creative capital of the world.”
An Open, Working Museum for the Public
Occupying part of the former 2012 Olympics Media and Broadcast Centre (now Here East), the Storehouse now houses over 250,000 objects, 350,000 books, and 1,000 archives — all accessible across four floors via a self-guided visitor experience.
At its core is the new Order and Object system, allowing visitors to request and view items from the collection. Over 1,000 objects have already been ordered — the most popular so far being a 1954 Balenciaga evening dress.
A Retrofit That Puts Culture on Display
The V&A East Storehouse stands as a landmark in sustainable retrofit, transforming a vast industrial shell into a fully accessible, climate-controlled cultural hub.
At its heart is a bold architectural idea — to turn the concept of storage inside-out. Rather than concealing the V&A’s vast collections behind closed doors, the building is designed to honour them: opening up conservation spaces, curatorial workshops, and archive stores to public view. This is a museum that shows its inner workings, inviting visitors into the daily life of collection care, research and exhibition preparation.
Bond Bryan: Delivering Design with Purpose
Bond Bryan led the technical design development and delivery, ensuring the original vision was preserved while meeting UK building regulations, British Standards, BREEAM, and construction best practice.
Bond Bryan also developed the retrofit strategy that enabled this transformation — addressing complex spatial coordination across public, display and operational zones, and delivering seamless integration of museum standards with modern construction.
“The Storehouse challenges traditional museum typologies — it’s both a public stage and a working engine room. As the delivery architects, we worked to honour that vision through carefully coordinated detailing and technical problem-solving — making sure the building functions beautifully, while retaining its theatrical impact.”
A Vessel for Storytelling
A centrepiece of the design is the Weston Collections Hall — a dramatic multi-level space that offers expansive views across the Storehouse’s interiors. Here, objects are integrated directly into the building’s structure, with curated displays embedded in racking and shelving systems. The building itself becomes a vessel for storytelling — from the smallest curiosities to monumental exhibits such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s reconstructed 1930s Kaufmann Office, and a 15th-century carved wooden ceiling from the now-lost Altamira Palace in Spain, reassembled as a suspended centrepiece above a flexible events space.
This approach extends to purpose-designed areas for displaying oversized and rarely seen items, including a new viewing gallery for stage cloths, tapestries and textiles — enabling safe public access to works that are normally kept in storage. The result is a space that is both functional and theatrical — a working museum that invites curiosity and offers cultural engagement on a scale rarely seen.
A Creative Anchor for East London’s Future
Developed through years of public consultation — including input from the V&A East Youth Collective — the Storehouse has been shaped by and for its communities. As part of the wider V&A East vision, it will be joined in 2026 by the new V&A East Museum, completing a once-in-a-generation transformation of how a national institution engages with the public.
Free to access, dynamic in format, and grounded in cultural inclusion, the V&A East Storehouse signals not just a new building, but a new way of thinking about what museums can be — and who they are for.
The V&A East Storehouse forms a key part of East Bank — a landmark cultural and educational district emerging in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy.
Credits
Photography© Hufton+Crow
