London's Design Museum has announced that its new £83m John Pawson-designed home in the former Commonwealth Institute will open on 24 November this year – two years later than originally planned. The £20m interior fit-out is scheduled to begin in June.
The excavation of a large double-height basement below the building will host galleries and an auditorium. But the largest of the museum's galleries will be placed at ground level and used for temporary exhibitions.
A Swarovski-sponsored learning centre and a library funded by the Sackler family will be set on the first floor.
The annual Designers in Residence programme – whose participants will be announced later this spring – will occupy the top floor of the building alongside a restaurant and members' room.
The Design Museum, which currently occupies a former 1940s banana warehouse in Shad Thames, will relocate to the renovated building, located on Kensington High Street in west London.
John Pawson's conversion of the 1960s building will triple the museum's current exhibition spaces to almost 10,000 sq m, allowing the museum to accommodate the first permanent display of its collection, alongside two temporary exhibitions. It is hoped the move will bring in an extra 400,000 visitors each year.