sketch of overlapping activities within the Members’ Room. image courtesy of Carmody Groarke

London-based design studio Carmody Groarke has won the competition to design a new members’ room at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum in London. Carmody Groarke design studio directed by Kevin Carmody and Andrew Groarke, saw off  other international practices including David Kohn, Universal Design Studio, SHH Architects, and FAT in the competition for the new members' room that will be set on the fourth floor looking Amanda Levete’s Exhibition Road scheme.

Amanda Levete Architects at the V&A, which will be opened 2017. image courtesy of V&A.

In competition brief, the new members' room defined as 'flexible and atmospheric space’ for the museum's 86,000 members. David Bickle, is design director of V&A, had been appointed head of design at the South Kensington museum in May last year. David Bickle said that ''Carmody Groarke’s proposal created a stage not the performance, responding to our brief and the heritage of the museum in a loose, relaxed, conversational way, creating a comfortable room for the museum’s broad member constituencies and a framework for creative programming''

Carmody Groarke. image courtesy of V&A.

''The international architectural competition has created a renewed interest in and curiosity of the structure, collections and social relevancy of the Museum into the future by a group of talented and thoughtful architects and designers. We are looking forward to welcoming Members old and new to a refined but adaptable space'' added David Bickle.

The contract is for the new members' room £156,000 and Carmody Groarke will now develop the scheme from RIBA stage 1 to 7. Carmody Groarke undertakes process-led work of widely varying typologies in the UK and abroad for private, commercial and public sector clients. In 2010 Studio East Dining won the globally prestigious Emerging Architecture Award by The Architectural Review. This year Carmody Groarke is the recipient of the RIBA Regional Award and the RIBA London Small Project Award, both for their Filling Station.

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