In partnership with RIBA, the V&A holds a large collection of two- and three-dimensional architectural designs. These sketchbooks and models provide an insight into centuries of architectural innovation.
Architects and Their Sketchbooks
Drawing in a sketchbook, said Le Corbusier, teaches 'first to look, and then to observe and finally perhaps to discover … and it is then that inspiration might come'.
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Architectural Models in the V&A and RIBA Collections
Ranging from ancient China and medieval India to early 19th century Italy and contemporary London, this is a selection of models drawn from the collections of the V&A and R…
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Designs by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, 1726–31
These lavish and imposing designs by Meissonnier for the Palace and Church of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Paris was intended for the Quai des Augustins but was never ex…
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Design for a Vaulted Ceiling, by Vincenzo Brenna, about 1775
This highly finished and elegantly drawn design was executed by the Italian architect, interior decorator and decorative painter Vincenzo Brenna (1745-1820) around 1776. It…
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The Modern Shop: Architecture & Shopping between the Wars
In the 1920s and 1930s architects produced a number of striking shop designs in Britain. Influenced by the 1925 Paris Exhibition and other Continental examples, many shops …
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Designs for Prefabricated House Fronts, by Berthold Lubetkin, 1949
Modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin created these theoretical designs for the 100 Houses Scheme, Thorntree Gill Housing, Peterlee, County Durham, drawing by Peter Yates, …
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Designs for the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, by Mies van der Rohe, 1968
These recent acquisitions are the first examples of architectural work by Mies van der Rohe to enter the V&A's collections. Representing a seminal project by one of the for…
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Design for an Entrance Hall by David Connor, 1985
This design by David Connor for the entrance hall of a Marylebone flat is part of a larger body of early work based around a small group of influential London punks.
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Archigram: The Walking City, Living Pod and the Instant City
This panel was created by the radical collective, Archigram (from ARCHItecture and teleGRAM) and uses collage to showcase 3 experimental British architectural design of the…
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Arup Associates Campus Model
Declan O'Carroll and Alan Belfield talk about the Arup Associates Campus project
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Contemporary Architecture Videos
Seven short films commissioned by the V&A which look at the architects featured in the 2010 Small Spaces exhibition and their projects.
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Architecture Audios
Listen to three audioclips discussing the architecture of Bluewater Shopping Centre, Sotckley Park Office Complex and a traditional Japanese house.
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Archives of Sir Hugh Casson and Margaret Macdonald Casson
The archives of Sir Hugh Casson (1910–1999) and Margaret Macdonald Casson (1913–1999) are important additions to the Museum’s collection of papers of twentieth-century Brit…
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Architects’ Sketchbooks: Resource Guide
This guide explains where to find architects' sketchbooks across the collections of the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership. It also gives some description of the kind of ske…
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Architects' Models
This guide explains where to find out about architects' models within the collections of the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership.
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A gift in your will
You may not have thought of including a gift to a museum in your will, but the V&A is a charity and legacies form an important source of funding for our work. It is not just the great collectors and the wealthy who leave legacies to the V&A. Legacies of all sizes, large and small, make a real difference to what we can do and your support can help ensure that future generations enjoy the V&A as much as you have.
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Modernism: Designing a New World (Paperback)
Modernism: Designing a New World is the first book to explore Modernism in the designed world from a truly international perspective, and across all t…
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