Green light for V&A museum at Dundee

Plans for a ‘floating’ V&A museum in Dundee have been approved by the city’s council.

Construction of the £45m project – designed by Japanese architecture practice Kengo Kuma and Associates – is scheduled to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2015.

The building will be constructed at the end of a pier and has the appearance of floating on the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.

Councillors gave the project their unanimous approval at a meeting on 17 September.

The project will receive £9.2m of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and will receive at least £18m in total from the Scottish government over the course of its development.

The V&A at Dundee is being delivered by Design Dundee Ltd – a partnership between the Victoria & Albert Museum, Dundee City Council, the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee and Scottish Enterprise.

Philip Long, director of V&A at Dundee, said: “We are delighted that planning permission has been granted. This is obviously another significant milestone for the project and reflects the tremendous amount of work that has been carried out by everyone involved to bring us to this point.

“This now allows us to move further with elements of the design and building programme, including procurement and tendering, and we will be doing that in due course. Elsewhere, we continue to make good progress in fundraising for the project, and also in developing an exciting programme for V&A at Dundee.

“There is much to do to bring the project to fruition, so we welcome the very strong support we continue to receive from all of our partners, and especially the public, who have been extremely enthusiastic about the prospect of V&A at Dundee.”

Commenting on this latest development in the project, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said:“This is a significant step forward in realising the vision for the V&A at Dundee, an international cultural project which has the potential to bring great benefits to the city and the whole of Scotland.

“It will attract visitors from all over the world and presents an opportunity to strengthen Dundee’s reputation as a centre for the creative industries.

“The Scottish Government has committed more than £18 million towards this pioneering project which is at the centre of Dundee’s regeneration. Our substantial financial contribution demonstrates this Government’s commitment to continue investing in capital projects such as this to support economic recovery and create more jobs.”