'Scriba Stylus' pen designed by Dublin Design Studio

V & A Dundee

David Craig • Feb 27, 2020

With our Scottish connections, we are proud to have been blown away by Kengo Kuma's world class design for Dundee. 

An image of the newly built V & A museum in Dundee
You may or may not have heard of this little city but it is the number one city to watch out for in 2018. As a Dundonian by heart, I can’t help but love this gorgeous city and its thriving student life. Dundee has been flying under the radar for a number of years now, and it is finally getting the attention it deserves, this was all thanks to its newest addition, the V&A. Dundee has been classified as a UNESCO city of design and has since then given us many masterpieces. However, the V&A promises to be the most ambitious project so far.

The original Victoria and Albert museum is located in London and was founded in 1852. As breathtaking as it is, it was time for a breath of fresh air, that came in the form of the new Dundee V&A. Its spectacular design is already catching the eye of the public and its opening on the 15th of September is expected to be highly successful.

The design of the building itself is already a hint as to what the museum will offer. The stacked layers of precast concrete are meant to refer to Scotland’s ‘rugged cliffs’; the V&A seems to take immense pride in its Scottish heritage and will be displaying a large number of Scottish artefacts found around the country in the main exposition which will be free to the public, as opposed to the traveling shows that will require an entrance fee. There will also be a reserved space for Scottish design history, not to mention features by local artists, such as graphic designer Maeve Redmond. This Scottish Centre of Design however will also offer a more global outlook and some expositions shared with the London V&A museum in the main temporary space.



All these exciting revelations make for a highly anticipated opening. The V&A team say they are expecting about 500,000 visitors for its first year starting 15th of September 2018. This is great news for the city itself as the Dundee City Council revealed they believe this could boost the local economy by more than £11.6 million per year.

Aerial view of the V and A

This project grew hand in hand with the city itself as Dundee is now one of the ‘coolest little cities in Europe (GQ article). Its ascension has been slow but steady and the creation of the V&A has certainly helped to its rise to the top. Some could qualify this as the Bilbao effect, as similarly to Dundee, it’s the Guggenheim museum that was the major factor in Bilbao’s international reputation.

V and A interior

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