National Gallery picks architect Kengo Kuma to build £350m extension
- maxwell museums
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Kengo Kuma will design the National Gallery’s £350m new wing.
The Japanese architect, 71, beat a number of major 'Starchitects' including Norman Foster and Renzo Piano to be picked to helm the huge extension, which has been dubbed Project Domani.
Bosses are calling the new wing “the largest and most significant transformation of the National Gallery since its formation 200 years ago.”
Kuma is perhaps most famous for designing Tokyo’s Olympic stadium for the 2020 Olympic Games. But he does have experience creating museums. He designed the V&A Dundee in Scotland, as well as Japan’s Bato Hiroshige Museum and the Kadokawa Culture Museum.
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Even so, the choice of Kuma is a surprise. The Times’ Chief Art Critic Laura Freeman responded to the news of his selection by asking readers “Have you — be honest now — ever heard of Kengo Kuma?” And when V&A Dundee was unveiled in 2018, the building was divisive. Rowan Moore, writing for the Observer, criticised “inexplicable architectural decisions,” which created a “headbangingly frustrating” visit.
The extension will add 15% more space for the gallery to display its permanent collection. There’ll also be a new temporary exhibition gallery that’s double the size of the gallery’s current largest temporary space. A new roof terrace will also be created, with views across Trafalgar Square.
Due to open in the early 2030s, the wing will be constructed on the site of the current St Vincent House, a 1960s hotel and office complex. The building — which will be demolished — was acquired by the National Gallery 30 years ago in anticipation of a future extension. It sits just north of the galleries 1991 Sainsbury Wing, which itself had a major overhaul in 2025.
Jury praises “exemplary” Kengo Kuma design
The jury who judged all six shortlisted architects said that they found the design submission from Kengo Kuma and Associates — who will work with design practices BDP and MICA on the scheme — “exemplary” and awarded it the highest available score.
They said “the design is both innovative and beautiful, meeting the ambition and sensitivity required for an international gallery commission. It is respectful of the Sainsbury Wing galleries ... and the approach to the public realm and roof garden creates a generous presence, enhanced by trees and greenery.”
They also praised its “sensitivity to the surrounding streets” and its aims to allow “natural light to be drawn into the building.” The Judging Panel included Dame Diane Lees, the former director of Imperial War Museums, and John Booth, the Chair of Trustees at the National Gallery and who is also donating a large sum of his own cash to the project.
How is the National Gallery funding the new wing?
Project Domani is costing £750m in total.
£350m is the price of the new building. The rest will be split between creating a new endowment fund for the National Gallery, and for purchasing artworks to fill the extension.
Controversially, this will mean expanding into collecting art from the 20th and 21st centuries, breaking a long-held agreement with Tate that it would not acquire works made after 1900.
So far £375m has already been raised for Project Domani, including the two largest ever publicly reported cash donations to a museum or gallery anywhere in the world.
£150 million has been pledged by Crankstart, the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz KBE and his wife, Harriet Heyman, and an equally transformative £150 million has been committed by the Julia Rausing Trust.
But while there have been record-breaking donations, some have raised-eyebrows at the fact that these have come in at the same time as the National Gallery announced a shock £8m deficit.
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National Gallery Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi praised Kuma’s appointment to the project, saying his “trajectory as an architect demonstrates exceptional design elegance, a keen sensitivity to location and to history, and a supremely beautiful handling of light and of materials.
“The new building will complete the National Gallery’s campus, adding distinction to some already distinguished buildings.”
Kengo Kuma said it was “a privilege” for him and his architecture firm to work on the project, especially as the gallery’s “collection is a treasure of humanity.”
He said “to be entrusted with the expansion that will hold these masterpieces is a responsibility we carry with the greatest care and humility.”
