What if we approach V&A East Storehouse as if it’s software?

By treating Storehouse as the V&A’s Operating System the studio aimed to help deliver V&A East’s vision for making its collections radically accessible: Wayfinding and Interpretation become an interface to help visitors Search, Discover, Decode and Hack the V&A’s collections. Everyone is welcome to explore, define their own experience, make connections and have agency within a national institution.

V&A East Storehouse’s modular signage system looks and feels programmable in an analogue way.

The scheme uses a bricolage of low-carbon and recycled materials that come together in a modular language that complements the architecture’s industrial aesthetic. The modular signage scheme has been designed to be updatable and reusable — a requirement that was born out of the briefs sustainability goals.

A bespoke monospace version of the V&A’s brand typeface was commissioned — best suited to the schemes modular approach. The resulting Spiller Mono helps give V&A East it’s own unique language that is atypical for a museum… Monospace typefaces were widely used in early computers and are still standard for writing / editing code.

Thoughtful materiality and a Circular design approach

The V&A is committed to a holistic, systems thinking approach to sustainability, shifting focus from individual parts to understanding influences within the whole organisation.

The brief asked us to embed sustainability into the design and its delivery, with an expectation to close material loops, focus on longevity of materials, reuse and recovery to design out waste.

Throughout the scheme we took a circular design approach and designed for disassembly allowing for ease of component separation and eventually material recovery.

Interpretation Hardware

Interpretation Hardware (designed by Fieldwork Facility and developed with IDK and Solved Workshop) is a robust and modular kit of components that allows interpretation labels to attach onto Storehouse’s crates, palettes and the infinitely variable Adjustable Palette Racking (APR). Label templates were created for staff to make agile changes to printed labels without requiring designers' intervention.

Decoding collections data

Taking optimum accessibility standards as the projects norm we designed special Large Print Guides for Storehouse as a way to look up what objects are on display currently. QR are also used across the building in

Polyvocality & Visitor Expression

Visitor expression points have been designed for the public to share ideas and have agency over how V&A East works. They were fabricated by BLOQs Create an open-access manufacturing collective in the Lea Valley. Fieldwork Facility proposed a design for voting coins and wanted to explore a sustainable way to fabricate them. The coins were fabricated by Are You Mad just across the canal in Hackney Wick, the first batch is primarily made from old blue mushroom crates.

Large Objects

The five large objects within the public network are highlighted with tiles place signage and feature special interpretation panels made from spangled galvanised steel mimicing the APR’s decking.

Back of House signage

The Back-of-House signage has been given just as much attention as Front-of House, with signage to help collections staff locate object addresses.

H&S supergraphics adorn the back of house areas catering for Storehouse’s unique environment where visitors will occasionally share spaces with forklifts and storehouse operations.

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