V&A Porter Gallery

The V&A Porter Gallery will house the contemporary programme of the V&A. The entrance to the space below creates a transitional lobby where a perceptual shift from the main V&A to the contemporary programme occurs. It has been designed to offer different forms of access to the gallery through five seven-metre high rotating screens. The screens can be reconfigured and are clad in reflective black carbon fibre sheeting. The roof is supported by over 3,000 one-millimetre cables carrying the centre-point in the span. This aspect of the project allowed the practice to develop its interest in phenomenological architecture, where the density of the cables begins to form a miasmic, mist-like structure that hovers above the roof and is visible from within the gallery.