2026 – V&A East Museum, Stratford, London
Designed by Irish architects O’Donnell & Tuomey, the V&A East Museum has been in progress since an architectural competition in 2015. The architects describe the outer skin of the new V&A building as acting “as a three-dimensional ‘folded dress’, lending the museum a distinctive form and striking identity. V&A East has been designed as a statement structure with a distinctive facade that wraps the building. ”
The facade is covered in 479 unique, precast concrete panels that are each around two metres high and stretch to as long as 14 metres. O’Donnell + Tuomey wanted the building to appear solid, so the studio aimed to make it appear to be stone
Each of the angled cast-concrete facades was given linear decoration as the architects liked the idea of drawing on the exterior of the building. John Tuomey has described the surface finish “It’s a design museum – so we thought, why can’t we draw the surface? So it started with me just drawing lines. Just sitting down and drawing lines, which was very enjoyable.”
The building has two public entrances, one at the Podium level and one from Waterfront Square. Designed around a central core, the galleries weave together over each floor, inviting visitors to explore the building. A large, adaptable gallery space will present major temporary exhibitions.
Sited close to the Sadler’s Wells Dance Theatre by the same architects which opened in 2025.
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Published April 15, 2026
