The V&A East Museum is a contemporary extension of the Victoria and Albert Museum designed to bring art, design, architecture and creative culture into East London. Rather than functioning like a traditional museum where objects are separated by historical period, V&A East presents creativity as a connected human activity, exploring why people make things, how design shapes society structured in a tower style building. The museum contains five floors of galleries and public spaces, with its main permanent exhibition, “Why We Make,” spread across two floors and featuring hundreds of objects from different art forms such as fashion, architecture, performance, furniture, textiles and visual culture.
The building itself, designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey, is a major part of the museum experience. Its exterior uses large precast concrete panels arranged like a folded piece of fabric complemented by the saturated purple flowers at its surroundings, inspired by the structure and movement of couture clothing. The architects drew inspiration from fashion design, particularly the idea of a garment creating shape through folds, volume and structure. The facade appears almost like a sculptural clay wrapped around the building, giving the museum a strong identity within the Olympic Park landscape.
Ground Floor – Arrival, Community and Contemporary Creativity
The ground floor introduces visitors to the museum’s connection with East London and focuses on creativity as something created by communities. Instead of presenting art as distant or exclusive, the space highlights designers, makers and cultural movements from around the globe connected to everyday life within one museum from the design down to the manufacturing.
Visitors encounter fashion pieces, textiles, objects and installations that demonstrate how personal identity and social history influence design. Examples include works connected to designers such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, alongside contemporary makers exploring sustainability, identity and cultural expression.
The architecture of the entrance level reflects this openness: large circulation spaces, dramatic openings and public areas make the museum feel more like a cultural meeting place than a traditional gallery.
First and Second Floors – “Why We Make” Galleries
The central exhibition of V&A East is the Why We Make galleries, which occupy two floors and display more than 500 objects from the V&A collection. Instead of arranging objects chronologically, the galleries are organised around themes such as identity, creativity, well being, representation and social change.
The collection brings together unexpected connections between different forms of creativity. A poetry or fashion garment may appear beside a piece of furniture, a piece of architecture, a sculpture or a performance object, showing that all forms of making are connected. This approach challenges the traditional museum model and encourages visitors to explore their own interpretations.
Objects include historical textiles, contemporary fashion, furniture design, ceramics, photography and performance-related pieces. For example, historical clothing demonstrates how craftsmanship and social values influence fashion, while modern works explore sustainability, technology and political expression.
The gallery design itself supports this idea. Displays are arranged as a “constellation” rather than a straight path, allowing visitors to move freely between objects and discover relationships between different creative disciplines.
Third Floor – Temporary Exhibitions and Major Cultural Themes
The upper gallery spaces are designed for temporary exhibitions, allowing V&A East to continuously change its focus and respond to current cultural conversations such as at the time of my visit being in regards to “The music is black”. These spaces are larger and more flexible, enabling the museum to host exhibitions exploring music, fashion, design history and contemporary social issues.
The design of this level reflects adaptability: rather than creating fixed rooms for one collection, the architecture allows different exhibitions to transform the environment. This makes the building itself a tool for creativity, changing depending on the stories being told.
Upper Levels, Circulation and Architectural Experience
One of the most important features of V&A East is that movement through the building becomes part of the exhibition. Staircases, openings and viewpoints create moments where visitors can see across the museum and the surrounding Olympic Park such as from the top floor balcony. The internal structure allows spaces to overlap visually, encouraging exploration rather than directing visitors through one strict route. This floor was composed of photographs from different sites in and around London which were relocated due to the 2002 London Olympic games ranging from wood makers, recycling to textile factories.
The building’s concrete exterior and internal framework create a contrast between strength and fluidity: the outside appears solid and monumental, while the inside focuses on movement, accessibility and human interaction.
Overall, V&A East represents a modern interpretation of what a museum can be. Its architecture, exhibitions and objects all communicate the same message: creativity is not limited to famous artworks but exists in fashion, engineering, architecture, craft, music and everyday design. The museum acts as both a gallery and a public space, reflecting East London’s diverse communities while expanding the traditional role of museums in contemporary society.
– References –
Architecture Today. (2026). V&A East Museum. https://architecturetoday.co.uk/va-east-museum/
The Guardian. (2026). V&A East architecture review: From ceramics to codpieces, this is a honey-coloured treasure trove of human ingenuity. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign
O’Donnell + Tuomey. (2026). V&A East Museum project. https://www.odonnell-tuomey.ie/
V&A. (2026). V&A East: Museum of design and creativity. Victoria and Albert Museum. https://www.vam.ac.uk/east
Visit London. (2026). V&A East Museum. https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/51197046-v-and-a-east-museum
Visit London. (2026). Why you should visit V&A East Museum in Stratford. https://www.visitlondon.com/blog/va-east-museum
Leave a Reply