Liquid error (sections/main-article--stories line 19): invalid url input
Treasure Trove
Taking a tour of the V&A’s incredible new open-to-the-public storage facility in East London.
One of the V&A’s greatest achievements with their new East Storehouse, a sprawling archive set in the ex-Media Centre of Stratford’s Olympic Village, is making you feel like you’re in a place which definitely should require restricted access.
“I love looking at stuff when I’m not supposed to” says Liz Diller. Her New York based architecture firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, have undoubtedly achieved their objective of ‘reinventing the idea of museum archives and storage’. “We wanted people to be breathing the same air as the artefacts.”
There is little to no separation between you and the approximately 250,000 intensely varied objects on display in the Store. You move amongst them across three floors, culminating in a huge atrium where, from one vantage point, you can see a Stratocaster, a façade from a brutalist social housing development, and a white jacket worn by Elton John on tour. Many of these objects haven’t been on display for hundreds of years, and the whole facility seems to have been designed around discovery.
The pieces in the V&A’s new East Storehouse aren’t organised by theme, year, or type, we found ourselves darting around trying to find the things that appealed to us most. The eclectic and non-methodical curatorial order to the Store makes you feel as if you’re Indiana Jones at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, meandering around a hangar filled to the brim with artefacts. The result is a sense of discovery rarely found in a more curated collection; David Bowie’s pre-amp and wider Bowie empherma, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kauffman office (an entire magnificent wood panelled room), and the 15th-Century Torrijos ceiling. Every encounter feels personal, and that’s not even taking into account the ‘Order an Object’ service where you can request a private viewing of any object from the collection.
There is little to no separation between you and the approximately 250,000 intensely varied objects on display in the Store.
The pieces in the V&A’s new East Storehouse aren’t organised by theme, year, or type, we found ourselves darting around trying to find the things that appealed to us most.
The Store is a different kind of museum; it feels like a bold experiment, with the object’s ethical, cultural, and social contexts laid bare. Visitors are completely immersed, able to quite literally peer over the shoulders of conservationists at work, and you’re able to see how a museum actually functions and manages a world of treasures.
The lack of glass between so many priceless objects and visitors “does slightly keep one awake at night”, the V&A’s Deputy Director, Tim Reeve, adds.
