Represeting the V&A Museum Expansion
Research Assistant Position for Ryan Roark

This project visualizes the Sackler Courtyard Expansion at the Victoria & Albert Museum, designed by AL_A Architects, through a physical model and a series of interpretive collages. The collages superimpose the renovation’s new architectural layers onto archival construction photographs, revealing the underlying structure and the innovative strategies used to introduce natural light and create a column-free underground exhibition hall. The conceptual framework for the collages was first developed in Representing Renovation, a workshop led by Ryan Roark. Following the course, I continued the work as her Research Assistant, constructing a physical model for exhibition. The model includes an accurately detailed 1/2 scale stair, mirroring the stairs that descend from the courtyard into the new exhibition space, paired with abstracted representations of the skylight and gallery volumes. These abstractions operate as shadowboxes, framing views back toward the historic museum facades and highlighting the dialogue between old and new that defines the expansion.