The Cast Courts are the largest galleries in the V&A, providing space for an extraordinary array of casts from across the world, striking in their size, beauty and style. As the only gallery in the V&A that displays its original collection, the Cast Courts offer visitors an unparalleled chance to understand and explore Victorian collecting culture. 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 the displays. Reviewers have commended in particular the newfound opportunity to go inside Trajan’s column, an incredible chance to explore the physicality and construction of this masterpiece. Throughout, Metaphor has capitalized on the benefits of the cast as opposed to the original: the ability to take visitors on a virtual Grand Tour and make objects and artworks that are distant, destroyed or in disrepair accessible to the public.
Reviews: The Telegraph, 27th November 2018: ‘For the first time, you can walk into the base of Trajan’s Column… If you’ve never been to the Cast Courts, you’ve got a glorious adventure ahead of you.’ Mark Hudson The Evening Standard, 28th November 2018 ‘With the triumphant restoration of the second gallery, allowing us to see both parts of this, 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.’ Melanie McDonagh Photography by Peter Cook.