This is a cultural milestone for Dundee and a new opportunity for the UK to show the world how art and design can educate and inspire
– Tristram Hunt, V&A director

V&A Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, will open to the public on Saturday 15 September 2018, it has been revealed.

New images of the Kengo Kuma-designed building have been released to coincide with the announcement, as have details of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions.

Standing at the centre of the £1bn (US$1.3bn, €1.1bn) transformation of the city’s waterfront, once part of the docklands, V&A Dundee has been designed to evoke the dramatic cliffs of Scotland’s east coast.

The museum will feature permanent galleries of Scottish design, as well as an international programme of changing exhibitions showcasing the very best of design from around the world.

While V&A Dundee has been established in close partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, drawing on its collections, curatorial expertise and exhibitions, it has its own director, will be run independently and will develop its own exhibitions.

The opening exhibition, ‘Ocean Liners: Speed & Style,’ will explore “the designs behind a mode of transport that came to represent the status of nations and the aspirations of millions,” including the engineering and architecture of ships used in the golden age of travel and the fashions and lifestyles of those on board.

Exhibits will include paintings, sculptures, ship and engine models, furniture, photographs, posters and film.

“This is the first of many ambitious exhibitions at V&A Dundee that will show how our lives have been – and always will be – shaped by design,” said Philip Long, the museum’s director. “V&A Dundee is set to be a vital new cultural organisation for Dundee, the UK and beyond.”

Further exhibition announcements will be made ahead of the museum’s opening.

Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, said: “The V&A was founded to champion British design, showcase the greatest works of creative ingenuity and enrich everyone’s imagination.

"V&A Dundee will build on our deep connections to the story of Scottish design and its meaning for modern practitioners, sharing our collections and world-class exhibitions. This is a cultural milestone for Dundee and a new opportunity for the UK to show the world how art and design can educate and inspire.”

Kuma’s team worked with engineering firm Turner & Townsend to realise the museum’s complex design. The structure is formed of 20 different curving elevations and external walls. Each wall was cast with a bespoke mould, which when removed to allow thousands of unique concrete and stone panels – made using stone aggregate, cement and reinforcement mesh – to be attached.

A cofferdam consisting of 12,500 tonnes of stone allowed construction to take place below the waterline, permitting the geometrically complex structure to stretch out into the River Tay itself.

Speaking about the design, Kuma has previously said: “The beauty of cliffs comes from the long, long dialogue between earth and water. I want to translate that beauty to a contemporary building. It’s very different from a concrete box, and very different from the museums of the 20th century.

“The inclination of the facade can give a different type of experience. If it’s too vertical, the vertical void rejects the people. The building should invite people to the waterfront.”

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