This is the museum courtyard, which adjoins Egzibition Road - the main street of Albertopolis, a complex of museums and educational institutions, created in London under Queen Victoria with the aim of educating the population of the British Empire. However, the courtyard - and, as a consequence, the museum - were closed on this side, since the boiler houses were located in the courtyard, disguised from the eyes of pedestrians by a "screen" designed by Aston Webb.
Boiler rooms are no longer needed by the museum, so in the mid-1990s this venerable institute tried to find a new use for the yard, planning there
wing "Spiral" designed by Daniel Libeskind - in the corporate style of this architect. However, the project remained on paper: there was no funding for this super-daring idea. Since the end of 2009, the museum has again thought about reconstruction, especially since Egzibition Road was experiencing its new birth, turning, according to the architects of Dixon Jones, into a single surface (shared surface) for cars and pedestrians, which corresponded more to its role in Albertopolis than the previous appearance of an overloaded one. motorways.
Keeping in mind the failure with the "Spiral", the management of the museum set a rigid framework for the participants in the competition for a new project. However, the project chosen by the jury by Amanda Leavit and her bureau AL_A nevertheless angered the defenders of the heritage: according to the architect, Webb's “screen” was to be partially dismantled - instead of the wall with a balustrade that served as the base of the colonnade, the columns received individual modern pedestals to open the courtyard to the public. Historians of architecture asked at least not to punch passages between each two columns, but to maintain the rhythm "opening - wall - opening - wall", but the project was eventually fully implemented.
In order to close the “screen” that had become so permeable at night, perforated doors were installed between the columns, on which a pattern was applied, repeating their damage received during the bombings of the Second World War (these “wounds” on the columns and masonry can be seen even now). The royal coat of arms is placed on the gate leaves - in memory of the crowned founder of the museum, celebrating her 165th anniversary this year.
After the renovation, the public can freely view the three historic façades of the courtyard, including the sgraffito decor. To support the V&A Museum's old link with the development of crafts, the project included an initially unplanned part: a pavement of hand-made porcelain tiles for the courtyard (11,000 pieces) and the roof of the pavilion with a cafe and museum shop (4,300 pieces). They were produced in the Dutch factory Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum, and the process of making each tile took five days. As a result, the museum became the owner of the world's first open space with porcelain paving. It forms 15 types of patterns. The courtyard is named after patrons of the arts, Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation - Sackler. Its area is 1200 m2.
In addition to the pavilion, in the courtyard there is the "Oculus" - a glass lantern that illuminates underground spaces; its red fragments are intended to remind of the upholstery of museum showcases. The underground and the main building can be accessed through the new Blavatnik Hall lobby, for which large arches are carved into the historic walls. A spectacular staircase leads down, along which visitors descend to the Sainsbury Gallery with an area of 1100 m2 (ceiling height - from 6.5 to 10.5 m). This is the new main temporary exhibition space that the Victoria and Albert Museum has lacked. A spectacular ceiling with an intricate profile hides fourteen 256-ton trusses supporting the courtyard and part of the historic building. Even lower is the area for the restoration and movement of exhibits (1500 m2).
The museum has now received 6,400 m2 of new space from the previously little used 2,200 m2. The project budget is 54.5 million pounds, of which 38 million were construction work. In their course, 22.5 m3 of soil was extracted, of which 99% was reused. The pit reached 18 m in depth, and part of the piles - 50 meters. The piles were driven in at a distance of only 1 meter from the historic building, and the pile driving units approached its facades by 30 cm, but the architectural monument did not receive any damage and remained open to the public during the entire construction. Arup engineers were involved in the project, specialists from the University of Cambridge were also attracted: they were amazed at the boldness of the idea and, for research interests, installed a fiber optic tracking system on the anchor piles, which is designed to check whether they work as in theory, or in reality, things are different. …
The renovation of the courtyard along Egzibition Road is part of the FuturePlan program, which has renovated two-thirds of the museum's public spaces over the past 15 years. At the next stage, the restructuring awaits the North and South Courtyards.
