Stanton Williams and Asif Khan have been named as the designers of the Museum of London’s future home in West Smithfield following an international architecture competition.According to a press release, their winning blueprint “balances a crisp and contemporary design with a strong recognition of the physicality and power of the existing spaces of the West Smithfield site.” Williams and Khan, working with conservation architect Julian Harrap and landscape design consultants at J&L Gibbons, emerged victorious with a design that incorporates a “vast excavated underground chamber,” reachable by what the museum called “innovative spiral elevators.” Most notable, however, is its glass dome, flooding the proposed round atrium with light. The circle at the center of this dome is mirrored in the design for the underground galleries, which feature what seems to be a series of circular skylights in their ceilings.Further design elements include a sunken garden; subterranean viewing platforms from which trains heading into Farringdon Station can be seen, in tribute to London’s iconic Underground; and “flexible spaces that can serve as a new meeting place for London and a center for events and debate.” All these will be set in and around what used to be the Smithfield market, a structure with a history that entrants into the competition were asked to be mindful of in their designs.Discussing the result, broadcaster Evan Davis, chair of the competition’s jury, said that Williams and Khan “offered some really innovative thinking, and managed to combine a sensitivity to the heritage of the location with a keen awareness of the practicalities of delivering a really functional museum.”Museum of London’s new location in West Smithfield will open in 2022. Read more