Tilley & Barrett was appointed by Wates in 2014 to fulfil an award-winning design by Amanda Levete Architects to create a new courtyard, entrance and exhibition gallery for the iconic Grade 1 listed Victoria & Albert Museum.
Client: Wates Construction Ltd
Architect: ARUP
Project Value: 7.8 Million
Sector: Demolition
Date of Completion: April 2017
Being a Grade I listed building posed a few challenges particularly in relation to the basement work which required bulk excavation and disposal of 30,000m³ arisings through preformed mole holes. Facilitating the excavation required the design, installation, and subsequent removal of temporary piles, needles and props of up to 35m in length and weighing up to 20 tonnes.
A programme of services diversions together with a meticulous plan for vehicle movements from site were put in place to minimise inconvenience to pedestrians and traffic outside the site.
The completed basement now holds up four additional floor levels which are topped by a complex steel frame, forming a ceiling to the exhibition gallery with the deck on the new ground level linking to the existing museum, bookshop, toilets and courtyard café. The continuous perimeter of secant piles, to a depth of between 25m and 35m, required some to be drilled less than a metre from the occupied Grade 1 listed existing museum buildings. We achieved all this with no more than 10mm cumulative movement across the entire installation, pre-loading and removal of the entire temporary works scheme.
Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cambridge, opened the new exhibition gallery in 2017.
