Museum Remix

From HIDDEN STORAGE to OPEN ACCESS, traditional museums and global design giants are LIFTING THE LID on their collections.

- JO BUITENDACH

DUSTY CORRIDORS, DIM LIGHTING, DO-NOT-TOUCH SIGNS... That's old-school. Today's museums are rethinking the script - focusing less on hushed reverence, and more on hands-on experience, interactivity and greater public access.

Most major institutions display less than 10% of their collections, with the rest kept in storage. The British Museum in London, for example, holds about eight-million objects but shows just 80 000 at a time - only 1%! But things are changing: a new wave of museum design is throwing open the collection doors and inviting the public in for a closer look.

In May 2025, the V&A East Storehouse launched in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Part of the V&A - a family of institutions dedicated to the power of creativity - this public-facing facility reimagines what a museum can be. Designed by acclaimed architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, it's both a working collection and an open invitation: for the first time, visitors can access hundreds of thousands of objects that were once hidden away. Through the V&A's radical new Order an Object service, anyone can book to view any item in the collection - free of charge, seven days a week.

"V&A East Storehouse is a completely new cultural experience - a backstage pass to the V&A," says Tim Reeve, deputy director and COO of the Victoria and Albert Museum. "It transforms the way people access the V&A's national collections on a scale unimaginable until now."