Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, unveiled a plaque at the Design Museum

Prince Philip, who has a life-long interest in design, unveiled a plaque at the new building of the Design Museum, a listed 1960s London landmark with an impressive undulating roof. Visitors to the Kensington High Street attraction, which opens to the public on November 24, can see the free permanent display of its collection. Housed in a landmark listed modernist building from the 1960s that has been sensitively returned by John Pawson, the project is the culmination of a five-year construction process. The museum has now tripled to 10,000 sqm from its previous premise in Shad Thames, south-east London. The structure has been transformed for its future role as the world's leading institution dedicated to contemporary design and architecture. Inside the museum, visitors find themselves in a central atrium with striking views up to the iconic hyperbolic paraboloid roof. The stunning concrete roof spans the length of the building, rising on the two opposing corners to create a manta ray-like structure above. Galleries, learning spaces, café, events space and a shop are arranged like an opencast mine around the main atrium, allowing visitors to navigate the space with ease and to discover everything the building has to offer by simply walking up its oak staircases. The main attraction on the museum’s top floor is the new permanent collection display, Designer Maker User. For the first time in the museum’s history, this exhibition will be free to visit. It will display almost 1000 objects, viewed from the perspectives of designer, manufacturer and user, as well as a crowd-sourced wall. Sir Terence Conran, founder of the Design Museum said: ‘I’m full of excitement as we enter the final stages of this long journey and prepare to open our magnificient new cathedral of design. It really does feel like our moment has arrived and that the importance of design to our lives is now truly appreciated. With three times the spaces and Pawson’s beautiful architectural work I hope we can now educate, inspire and delight future generations for years to come and truly make a differences to the world around us. Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum added: ‘This project is important not just for the museum but for the investment in the creative future that it represents. The Design Museum sees design as borderless, international in scope and vital means of understanding the world around us’.