Design Museum Selects John Pawson to Design Its New Building

Rumored back in late 2008, officially announced late last year, and now reaching the end of the first part of the move, London’s Design Museum has picked an architect to design their new home. The winner is John Pawson, who is set to redesign the already-standing building the Design Museum snapped up a few years back, the 60s-era former Commonwealth Institute building also known as “the Parabola” in West London. Although we’ve yet to see his plans (the original call for submissions seems like the closest), it appears that Pawson did a bang up job, beating out some major competitors and being lauded in the process. Here’s a bit from Building Design:

Pawson triumphed over the shortlisted David Chipperfield, Tony Fretton, Stanton Williams, Caruso St John, Haworth Tompkins and Dutch firm Claus en Kaan following a long-delayed Ojeu contest.

…Nevertheless, rival firms rushed to congratulate the winner while Sunday Times architecture critic and RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman predicted Pawson’s approach would complement RMJM’s 1962 Kensington building, the subject of a wider commercial development drawn up by Dutch firms OMA and West 8.

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