---

The V&A museum in London is to open a dedicated furniture gallery in December, complete with touchscreen information panels – a first for the museum.

---

Being designed by Scottish practice NORD Architecture, the space will house some 200 furniture pieces, all previously on display but dotted around the museum.

According to the designers, one of the greatest challenges of the project was finding a suitable design backdrop to the furniture collection, which spans hundreds of years of history. Its solution is for the exhibits to follow a linear chronological order of European, American and Asian furniture from the Middle Ages to the present day, set against a subdued colour scheme.

Highlights will include a 20th-century dining chair by Frank Lloyd Wright, a storage unit by Charles and Ray Eames from the Fifties and a gilded cassone (marraige chest) dating from the 1500s.

Around the outer wall, separate displays will describe technical aspects regarding furniture production and design, as well as construction techniques such as digital manufacture, gilding and carving.

NORD Architecture won a competition to design the gallery last year.
vam.ac.uk; nordarchitecture.com