The V&A Cast Courts
Metaphor has redisplayed the Cast Courts, two of the oldest as well as most popular galleries in the V&A. Through close collaboration with the curators, Metaphor has brought this gallery to life through their designs by including visuals, videos and content which explore the cast making process.
Key aspects of Metaphor's design vision to reinvigorate the courts include restoring the original Victorian flooring, exquisite object placement that opens up key sightlines, and providing additional opportunities to touch replicas and interact with displays.
Reviewers have commended in particular the new-found opportunity to go inside Trajan's column with The Telegraph's Mark Hudson advising 'if you've never been to the Cast Courts, you've got a glorious adventure ahead of you.'
The results are spectacular galleries that take visitors on an 18th and 19th century Grand Tour. The galleries opened to critical acclaim at the end of 2018.
Melanie McDonagh from The Evening Standard said 'with the triumphant restoration of the second gallery, ...., quite the best bit of the museum, in its entirety... the museum makes a virtue of the skills of reproduction; the area between the two courts is given over to an exposition of how it's done.'
Service: Exhibition Design
Client: The Victoria and Albert Museum
Cost: £2.5 million
Realisation: 2018