Scheme is part of wider revamp of central London institution

Zaha Hadid Architects’ new mathematics gallery at the Science Museum opens its doors today.

The gallery is part of a wider masterplan by the South Kensington institution to transform its space by 2019 which has seen a string of appointments including Duggan Morris, HAT, Muf and Wilkinson Eyre.

The new maths gallery aims to tell the story of how mathematicians have helped to shape the world from the turn of the 17th century to the present.

Called the Winton Gallery, it is the first permanent public museum exhibition designed by Zaha Hadid Architects anywhere in the world and the first of Hadid’s projects to open in the UK since her death in March.

Science Museum director Ian Blatchford said: “It was a terrible shock for us all when Dame Zaha died suddenly in March this year but I am sure that this gallery will be a lasting tribute to this world-changing architect and provide inspiration for our millions of visitors for many years to come.”

More than 100 items will be on display and one of the star exhibits will be a Handley Page aircraft, a 1929 British experimental aircraft with a 12m wingspan which will be suspended from the gallery ceiling. It was built for a competition to construct safe aircraft.

Hadid beat Carmody Groarke, Hugh Broughton Architects, Adam Richards, Universal Design Studio and Casper Mueller Kneer to land the job back in 2014.

 

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