NMeM set to launch search for London presence design team

[Michael Pritchard]

Design Week reports that the National Media Museum, Bradford, is set to launch a search for a team to provide integrated design services, including architecture and engineering, for its London Galleries Project. The project will see the creation of 1500m2 of exhibition galleries in a location in the capital believed to be at the Science Museum in South Kensington. The NMeM's Charlotte Cotton who is based at the Science Museum is heading the project.

The galleries are set to open in September 2012, and will focus on photography, film, television, radio and the Internet. The gallery space will feature: flexible installation spaces; a screening and performance space; private study rooms; a large welcome lounge; and a café and bar.

The NMeM parent body the NMSI is seeking designers to provide: ‘a digital, audio and visual environment that befits a forward-thinking and media-based project’; ‘a suite of facilities that are truly flexible and respond to the day-and-night programming of the entire but also specific areas of the space’; and ‘a design identity that is coherent on both macro and micro levels, from the use of the space’s existing features to the materials used for gallery and library furniture’. NMSI adds that the project is not fully funded yet.

Expressions of interest are currently being sought, and suppliers will be invited to tender through the Official Journal of the European Union from 14 April. The contract will be awarded on 15 June 2010.