More than 60 teams applied to the International Architectural Competition, which ran for nine months before five architect-led teams were shortlisted for the bold transformation of the British Museum's Western Galleries.
The initial ideas by the five short listed teams were displayed in the British Museum's Reading Room from December 2024.
The British Museum director Dr Nicholas Cullinan posted on Instagram that Lina Ghotmeh Architecture's initial ideas “unanimously impressed the jury with their beauty, sensitivity and ingenuity and for her deep interest in archaeology”.
"Her initial ideas for us (slides 1-4) unanimously impressed the jury with their beauty, sensitivity and ingenuity and for her deep interest in archaeology. These including using Portland stone spolia, 40% of which otherwise goes to waste and the striated surface of the process of chiselling would instead be employed here, along with As part of their submission rubble from the building process being reused to line the walls of the Lycian wing to ravishing effect."
Read more on Lina Ghotmeh Architecture (LGA) appointment in The Art Newspaper.
Ghotmeh designed the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London and has also been commissioned to design a contemporary art museum in the AlUl, Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, an ancient Arabian oasis city located in Medina Province in northwestern Saudi Arabia. An online biography, which describes her as a “humanist architect”, says that in 2005 she won the international competition for the design of the Estonian National Museum while working in London, collaborating with Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Foster & Partners.
As part of their submission, Lina Ghotmeh Architecture's were asked to create a short video describing the team’s vision and approach, watch that too. "We reimagine a rich canvas of enchanting experiences sparking curiosity, cultural exchange, and healing", was posted on the practice's Instagram.
Lina Ghotmeh will be consulting with artist Ali Cherri, a Lebanese Paris-based artist whose works explore geopolitical and cultural histories.
The Western Range covers a third of the museum’s overall gallery space, as well as back-of-house areas, totalling 15,650 square metres. The Western Range refurbishment is part of the wider museum masterplan which also includes a new museum Energy Centre designed to phase out the use of fossil fuels, replacing them with low-carbon technologies. This project—partly funded with government support—should save 1,700 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, making the institution more sustainable.
Last year Ghotmeh told the Robb Report publication: “The field of archaeology is always telling you stories about how we used to build and interact with our environment, constantly putting in perspective what has been done already… It’s not just an obsession with ecology, it’s also a quest for more sustainable materials. Any act of building has to have a positive impact on its environment.”
