Mariana Magalhães Costa . Arquitetura

V&A Storehouse, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

19/04/2026

Open in May 2025, the V&A Storehouse was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. It is located in Stratford, where the London 2012 Olympic Park used to be. It is in fact set within one of the former Olympic media and broadcasting center’s buildings.

The region is easily accessible through public transport. I came by metro through the Central line, and left at Startford station. To reach the Storehouse, I walked for around 20 minutes. On the way, I passed through the Westfield mall and caught a glimpse of a few olympic buildings, such as the aquatics center (designed by Zaha Hadid architects) and ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture (by Anish Kapoor).

Aquatics center designed by Zaha Hadid architects

ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture, by Anish Kapoor, and the London Stadium

It is interesting to see that the neighbourhood’s transformation continued even after the Games, with new housing developments and a new branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the V&A East, which opened on 18 April 2026.

V&A Dundee, another museum from the same group which was designed by Kengo Kuma and associates, was the subject of this other blog post.

The V&A Storehouse is not a museum. It is in fact a storage facility open to public visitation. It follows the same model as Depot, an MVRDV project in Rotterdam that opened in 2021. A report by ICCROM-UNESCO, published in 2011, showed that, in a survey of nearly 1,500 museums, around 95% of items are in storage. In other words, only 5% are on display to the visitors. The Depot and the V&A Storehouse are examples of projects that seek to broaden public access to these collections.

As you enter the V&A Storehouse, on the ground floor there is a café, a lounge with sofas and armchairs (where people can even go to work), as well as toilets and lockers. There is no ticket office, as entry is free.

Once you climb the main stairs, you arrive in a large hall, the most impressive space in the Storehouse. With a ceiling height of 20 metres, this hall offers a panoramic view of the collection.

With a total surface of 16,000 square metres, the V&A Storehouse is home to 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives. As the project involved the repurposing of an existing building, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design included the installation of metallic walkways and open shelves for the display of the objects.

There are also conservation rooms, where visitors can observe art restorers at work. There are also videos which offer an explanation about the process.

Some sections of the floor are made of glass. This allows us to see objects from the collection below.

The collection includes pieces of furniture design, architecture, fashion and much more. Here are some of the highlights on display:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s projects

The Kaufmann office is an interior design project by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was designed and built between 1935 and 1937. The walls were cladded with cypress plywood. The room was donated by retail magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann’s son in 1974.

There are also models of some of Wright’s other projects, such as the Guggenheim in New York.

Frankfurt Kitchen, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky

Frankfurt kitchen was designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky and became an icon of modern design. As it was prefabricated, it was easy to install. More than 10,000 units were installed in homes during the 1920s.

Robin Hood Gardens

Robin Hood Gardens was a social housing estate designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson. Built in post-war London, the project is an example of Brutalist architecture, constructed from precast reinforced concrete. The complex, which comprised over 200 flats, was opened in 1972 and demolished between 2017 and 2025. There were campaigns to preserve the complex, but attempts to have it listed were rejected by the government. The V&A acquired a section of the façade following its partial demolition in 2017. Here at the V&A Storehouse, this section of the façade is on display in the main hall. There is also part of a flat and audio recordings featuring some of the residents.