British Museum shortlists five teams to reimagine visitor welcome experience

The British Museum has announced a shortlist of five consultant teams in search of proposals for a new and improved welcome pavilion and public realm at the museum’s north and south entrances. 

The multidisciplinary teams comprise landscape designers, architects, and public realm consultants. They were all drawn from Lot 4 of the Greater London Authority’s Architecture + Urbanism Framework under the specialty, “Landscape, Green Infrastructure & Public Realm”. The Framework is a pre-approved panel of built environment consultants who provide high-quality expertise for various public sector projects in London.

The competition tasked teams to design plans for high-quality, flexible, and sustainable pavilions and public spaces that will improve the museum’s welcome experience. It also calls for a clear end-of-life plan that will account for the re-use of any structures erected on the site.

The shortlisted teams are: 

• Team one: Collective Cultures (OMMX, AANF, Msoma Architects, YAA Projects) with J&L Gibbons
• Team two: East Architecture and Hayatsu Architects with Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape
• Team three: Periscope with Assemble
• Team four: Publica with Carmody Groarke
• Team five: Studio Weave with Wright & Wright Architects, Webb Yates Engineers, Tom Massey Studio and Daisy Froud

The selected proposal will also serve as a precursor to a permanent project as part of the British Museum’s master plan project. It aims to restore and renovate the museum. It includes the Western Range project, which is currently in the second phase of an international open competition to find a design team that will reimagine over a third of the museum’s gallery space.

The shortlisted teams will each receive a fixed fee to develop concept designs. They will be evaluated by the museum until a single design is selected towards the end of 2024.

“Our long-term intention is to bring forward permanent improvements that account for growth in our visitor numbers and reimagine the relationship between our buildings and the wider neighbourhood as part of our Masterplan project," said Head of Capital Projects: Masterplan at the British Museum, Alice Fraser. "The Visitor Welcome Pavilion project will act as a precursor to that process, calling for high-quality designs that deliver an immediate improvement for visitors and allow the Museum the flexibility to explore new solutions to our welcome experience.”