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Zaha Hadid Architects director designs ‘glowing, swirling’ whisky bottle for V&A Dundee

2024-03-25T13:24:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects director Melodie Leung has collaborated with Scottish whisky distillery Dalmore to create a “dramatic glass sculpture” housing two rare Highland Single Malt whiskies. The sculpture is the second chapter of ‘The Dalmore Luminary Series,’ a collaboration between the distillery and V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum.

Image credit: The Dalmore

Leung’s piece is titled ‘The Dalmore Luminary - The Rare - 2024 Edition’ and will be offered at auction with all proceeds donated to the museum. For the piece, Leung worked with Dalmore and master glass artist Fiaz Elson from The Glass Foundry to create a “dynamic glass amber sculpture” to house the 49-year-old Old Single Malt.

Image credit: The Dalmore

The sculpture was produced at The Glass Foundry’s kiln for 12 weeks. An initial molding was made at 890 degrees Celsius and held at that temperature for 15 hours to remove moisture and air bubbles. The temperature was then grad...

New drone video shows off Kengo Kuma's soon to open V&A Dundee Museum

2018-08-23T17:03:00-04:00

The V&A Dundee Museum designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma is a massively dramatic stone-and-glass building. Located in the Scottish coastal city of Dundee, it will be the first institution outside of London to associate with the famous "Victoria & Albert" name and is the architect's first foray into the UK.

Drawing inspiration from the country's famously photogenic cliffs, the new museum is a modern design with a jagged exterior that has drawn comparisons to a Star Wars spacecraft. Positioned between the water and the city, the new museum is at the center of an almost $1.3 billion transformation of the city's waterfront intended to give fresh weight to the idea of Dundee as a destination.

Photo by Hufton+Crow.

Set to open next month, the V&A Dundee Museum will focus primarily on fashion, architecture, design and photography. Its inaugural exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed & Style, will explore the design and cultural impact of ocean liners on an international scale.

The museum...

Kengo Kuma visits his ship-like V&A Dundee museum as exterior nears completion

2017-10-18T16:09:00-04:00

Ten years after a Dundee V&A museum was first considered, the finishing touches are being applied to the exterior of the £80.1m building ahead of its opening next summer. [...] No amount of artist's impressions and computer-generated fly-throughs could have prepared the city for the true size and scale of the imposing design of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who will inspect the building on Wednesday.

Kengo Kuma was in Scotland today to inspect construction progress on the impressive V&A Museum of Design Dundee he designed.

Video via V&A Dundee on YouTube

He seemed very pleased, stating: "As an architect, seeing a completed building can be stressful, as some times the quality isn’t satisfactory. But in this case the quality, and the attention to detail has given me great satisfaction to see. I was so impressed when I saw how the building works together with the River Tay. Some museums are just boxes – this isn’t just a box, it is linked to nature."

Closeup of the exterior walls. Image via V&A Dundee on Facebook.

The project is making significant strides, having just completed the exterior walls with its 2,500 cast stone panels that wrap the volume like planks on a sailing ship. Construction crews also recently dismantled the temporary cofferdam that separated the structure from the River Tay.

The building is scheduled to open in 2018.

Kengo Kuma Wins V&A at Dundee Competiton

2010-11-03T14:55:00-04:00

The design team led by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was announced today winner of the international competition for a new landmark building to house the V&A at Dundee on Scotland's East Coast. Kuma beats five other proposals that were shortlisted in late September this year, including Steven Holl, REX, Snøhetta, Delugan Meissl and Sutherland Hussey. Bustler | previously