Left The Young V&A is housed in an elegant steel and glass Grade II-listed structure and has now undergone a makeover
Bottom The design brief emphasised the creation of a place for children to indulge their creativity, ingenuity and joy
PLAY SPACES 073
IT’S BEEN a long time coming, but what a joyful (re)emergence onto the scene for the Young V&A, formerly known as the Museum of Childhood. After several years of careful planning and workshops with client and the wider community for architects De Matos Ryan and interior and exhibition and designers AOC, this iconic building has reopened as a radically rethought, light-filled, fully interactive, welcoming space for children aged 0 to 14 – and, equally importantly, the families that will undoubtedly accompany them. When I visited on the first public open day in mid-summer 2023, the main hallway, with its distinctive black and white tiles, felt gloriously open to all comers, rather than crammed with café and shop furniture as before. Tere is still a café, but now it is situated at the far end, complete with generous provision of seats and tables so parents can rest in full view of their kids as they ricochet around the building (the shop now makes a colourful splash in the formerly empty and seemingly purposeless foyer). Meanwhile, the front of the central hall has been reconceived as a Town Square. On the day I visited, it was given over entirely to free- roaming small visitors. Tey were taking full advantage of the bench seating cantilevered off every side – although more for hanging off, skipping along and crouching under than sitting on. Talk about licence to play and to roam.
with huge sophistication and playfulness in a series of figurative enclosures, flagged up with playful totems. Play and Imagine are on the ground floor, the latter hosting the Museum’s iconic dolls houses as a ‘street’, set into an area with maps and captions that encourage understanding of how city streets and placemaking evolve. While the ground floor is more free range, one whole side of the first floor is oriented towards making and workshops, under the heading Design. Here, you can learn everything from how graphics are used to change behaviours (in a section on protest and placards) or how you design games – with an opportunity to create one yourself – which includes an exhibit made in collaboration with Minecraft. In its own sawtooth-roofed ‘shed’ area is a
Maker space, where a regular maker in residence will educate and inspire through demonstrating work in their chosen field.
Across the hall on the opposite side is a space for temporary shows. It feels like a glorious antidote to the decade of cuts in design and art education that UK schools have endured. Every city should have one.
Client V&A Museum Architect De Matos Ryan Interior and exhibition design AOC
Wayfinding and signage Graphic Thought Facility Area 5,200 sq m Cost £13.5m
Te mission here, says Dr Philippa Simpson, has been to make it a museum of joy. Tat’s what the workshops with children revealed they wanted. And Simpson, the V&A’s director of design, estate and public programme, and her colleague Helen Charman, director of learning and national programmes, have ensured that every square inch of the museum and its contents provokes curiosity, delight and interaction. It wasn’t about designing zoned places for age- specific audiences, she tells me, but making everyone feel welcome; though there are clearly areas tailored towards toddlers or teens, they are designed for maximum appeal. Frankly, I was also tempted to join the 0 to 3-year-olds as they crawled on hands and knees in the Mini Museum, fondling the 111 materials in over 40 colours that have been deployed over a wide assortment of utterly seductive shapes and structures. AOC
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