The V&A’s Sensible Alternative

When the Victoria & Albert Museum finally decided to bag Daniel Libeskind’s controversial “spiral” addition, the museum started over. “This time round the museum started by asking the question, “What do we really need?” or rather, “What does the visitor need?” It commissioned a masterplan, re-thought the whole way the museum is organised, realised the heart of this new vision was the garden, and then brought in designers to suggest what might be done to make what had become a dank and unloved space, dominated by brooding cypress trees, work.”