AOC reveals Museum of Childhood interiors plans

AOC Architecture has unveiled its proposals for “reimagining” the interiors of the V&A’s Museum of Childhood as part of a £13m upgrade package.

Its plans deliver an explosion of colour to the Bethnal Green institution, which the practice said was the result of bringing together a “palette of found colours”.

AOC, which is based less than a mile away from the museum, said photomicrographic analysis of the building’s ironwork – relocated to east London from the V&A’s main site in the early 1870s – showed it had had 30 paint schemes over the years.

It said the new scheme proposed for the main hall – to be named the “town square” after the two-year refurb project – metaphorically peeled back 150 years of paint to reveal the ironwork’s original black primer and was a “stripy complement” to the gallery’s black-and-white fish-scale pattern floor.

建筑一层的设计方案以“设计师之家”画廊为特色，其灵感来自屋顶桁架和原始“Brompton锅炉”的包层轮廓。

AOC said its gallery designs sought to balance the need to securely display objects with the opportunity for children and adults to engage with them – so exhibits will be placed at a range of heights.

Founder Geoff Shearcroft said AOC had been excited by the opportunity to create a museum that allowed families to experience and engage with the collection and each other at the same time.

“The grandeur of the historic building is tempered with a family of soft elements and linings to create an essential and comfortable civic space, able to meet the diverse needs of international visitors and Bethnal Green,” he said.

“通过涉及藏品和社区的合作设计过程，我们的目标是让博物馆在其物品、故事和体验中反映其广泛的、多代的观众。”

The museum is to close for two years from May for the upgrade to take place. Last yearbase-build architect De Matos Ryan won planning permission for structural additions to the building，它将包括一个新的入口，一个升级的Clore学习中心，和一个万花筒式的特色楼梯。

V&A director Tristram Hunt said the revitalised museum would bring together the V&A’s world-class collections with immersive displays that were anchored in children’s everyday lives.

“We will offer an outstanding day out for families, for free,” he said.

“受当地社区的喜爱，但需要现代化，这一雄心勃勃的转型将使V&A童年博物馆释放其巨大的潜力，以培养未来一代的潜力，并成为儿童创造力的全球冠军。”

The V&A said when the Museum of Childhood reopened it would draw on the entire V&A collection to inspire innovators of the future.

还将有一个模型小镇，汇集了博物馆的全国收藏的玩偶屋，以及附近丹尼斯·拉斯顿的二级Sulkin House集群街区和星球大战飞船的模型——所有这些设计都是为了“激发”关于家的概念的新思维。