Scottish Design Galleries

Scottish Design Galleries in the new V&A Dundee museum is the first exhibition in the world dedicated to telling the extraordinary story of Scottish design. Working with a broad range of the community, the museum’s unique charm and educational offerings meant that the establishment was well on its way to becoming a Scottish staple. Therefore, we were delighted to have the opportunity of working with the exhibition design team at ZMMA:

“Through 300 objects spanning more than 500 years and ranging from architecture to fashion, healthcare to furniture and engineering to videogame design, the Scottish Design Galleries present the breadth and richness of Scottish design, historically and today.

The majority of objects on display are drawn from the V&A’s world-class collections of art, design and performance, brought together with loans from other museums, private collections, designers and companies across Scotland and the world.”

We were thrilled to be appointed Exhibition Fit Out Contractor (having already / separately delivered the internal wood panelling packages for BAM Construction), delivering all setworks and managing a full complement of specialist subcontract packages in Display Cases, Graphics, AV , Interactives and Decoration.

Scottish Design Galleries was shortlisted for the Best Permanent Exhibition at the Museums & Heritage Awards 2019 and is among five museums nominated for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019.

Not only is completing our projects to the highest standard a core ethos of ours, but truly believing that we have added real value to every one of our projects is high on our list of priorities. Our applied added value to this magnificent project included: close design coordination with the client design team to ensure the client’s vision was accurately executed, our design co-ordinator uses clear communication and expert mitigation and planning skills. Moreover, we performed full project management in the live environment and provided the detailed setworks and specialist subcontract services.

V&A Dundee have praised us as ‘The standard of finish was excellent throughout’ and described our team as ‘an absolute pleasure to work with’. The significant structure within the museum is the ‘inspiration wall’ which is a cabinet of curiosities filled with objects from collections all over the world. This structure was complex as it contained integrated showcases, lighting and graphics, thus precise execution was critical, however we were able to quickly problem-solve this structure and produce an impressive stand-out display piece for the space which has ended up being a highlight for many visitors.  Additionally, the design-and-wrapped-table in this space was made from a metal work frame, the top was Corian and had several interactives and AV’s integrated. Both setworks are visually appealing displays which simultaneously educate and inspire visitors.

Since opening in 2018, the Scottish Design Galleries has been visited by over half a million people, and it has been recorded that 95% of visitors are extremely satisfied with their experience and would recommend the galleries. So, we are immensely proud to have played a part in this project and are delighted to witness the V&A’s subsequent highly deserved success and recognition. As proud as we are of this project, the V&A have equal pride in our delivery, stating that they have felt lucky to work with a ‘thoughtful, skilled and considerate contractor’, highlighting the success of this project from both sides.