The British Museum has announced that Lina Ghotmeh Architecture has by unanimous vote won the bid to redesign its Western Range galleries. The scheme drawn up by the Paris-based firm led by the Lebanese-born architect carried the day over the other four finalists: 6a architects, David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects in collaboration with Jamie Fobert Architects, and OMA. Each shortlisted office received an honorarium of 50,000 pounds for participating in that phase of the competition.

Part of an ambitious masterplan to remodel the London institution, the intervention will include reorganizing over a third of the current exhibition space. Until now this zone has been home to the institution’s collections of artifacts of ancient civilizations (Egypt, Greece, Rome…), but its more than 15,000 square meters of space had over time become insufficient.

The jury – composed of architecture experts including Yvonne Farrell, Meneesha Kellay, Mahrukh Tarapor, and Sarah Younger, alongside representatives of the museum’s board of trustees – noted Lina Ghotmeh’s understanding of the museum and her sensitivity to its complexities, particularly in relation to the arrangement of its treasures and the interaction between pieces and the diverse groups of visitors.

Ghotmeh’s scheme for the new galleries takes from her idea of an ‘archaeology of the future,’ an approach she has applied in previous projects, consisting of an ‘archaeological excavation’ which, by looking at a building’s past, can imagine its future, integrating principles of sustainability and using natural materials in a historical narrative that interweaves with contemporary perspectives.

Ghotmeh and her team will now work closely with the museum in refining their proposal, for unveiling by mid-2026, in what is a key phase of the overall plan to transform the institution.

Vídeo: British Museum Western Range Competition - Lina Ghotmeh Architecture