Museum of London to be rebuilt with spiral elevators and “beautiful dome”

Architects Stanton Williams and Asif Khan have won a design competition for a new Museum of London.

The firms will work with conservation architect Julian Harrap, landscape design consultants J&L Gibbons, Plan A Consultants and HCD Management on the project, which will relocate the museum from its present home in the City of London a kilometre or so to the west in Farringdon.

The team will also develop proposals for the site with the museum and stakeholders.

The winning proposal was chosen on basis of "innovative thinking, sensitivity to the heritage of existing market buildings and understanding of practicalities of creating a great museum experience".

The early stage concept includes:

• A new dome which would create a "beautiful light-filled entrance to the museum"
• Spiral escalators that would transport visitors down to the underground exhibition galleries
• A sunken garden and green spaces.

Williams and Khan were selected from a shortlist of six teams, including Bjarke Ingels Group and Caruso St. John.

Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London said: "Over the coming months we will work together to design a new museum for London and Londoners which will be one of the top visitor attractions in the capital."

The museum intends to submit a planning application for the new site to the City of London Corporation in 2018 and to deliver the museum by 2022.

Ament and Paul Williams, the director of Stanton Williams, will be giving a talk about the project with New London Architecture at the Building Centre on 12 August 2016, free tickets are available here.

Images via Stanton Williams