The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is one of the most recognised names in the museum world. Based in London, the V&A is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design. Established in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the museum houses a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects.
In 2014 the museum team was planning to bring its extensive textile and fashion collection under one roof. They wanted to create a dedicated museum storage facility at Blythe House, which they were calling the Clothworkers’ Centre, built to study, conserve and store its textiles and fashion collection.
The V&A approached Haworth Tomkins Architects to support them via the creation of designs for the new Clothworkers’ Centre. In turn Haworth Tompkins approached Rackline to support them in the creation of bespoke museum storage solutions to fit both the spaces available, and the various textiles and objects to be stored within the new facility.
The V&A’s collection consisted of 104,000 objects, ranging from small archaeological textile fragments from Egypt to enormous tapestries created for medieval European palaces. Rackline worked closely with Haworth Tomkins Architects over an 18 month period to analyse the space, the items to be stored and create the perfect storage solution for each area. The bespoke solutions installed included: Storage on mobile bases for 1,280 large rolled textiles from 1.5 to 5 metres long (with a similar quantity of static storage for smaller rolled textiles and wall-mounted storage for 6m long rolled textiles), 500 linear metres of storage for hanging garments with approximately the same quantity of shelving and around 7,000 drawers in six different sizes.
The resulting new Clothworkers’ Centre at brings the V&A’s extensive textiles and fashion collection together under one roof for the first time along with a spacious new public study room, seminar room, upgraded conservation studios and modern, custom-built storage from Rackline. The centre offer visitors and researchers increased access and improved facilities to study and enjoy its important collection.
The modular storage systems custom-built by Rackline ensure the long-term preservation of the collection and easy access to the stored items.
Following on from the project completion we were proud to discover it had been presented with a RIBA award.
Rackline solutions are not just for museums…If you are looking for the perfect storage for your valuable items then talk to us about your options. From a huge range of standard storage units, to full bespoke installs, Rackline are the experts.
