THE ARK OF DUNDEE
It’s hoped the £80m V&A opening in the Scottish city today will lead to a huge economic boost. Simon Calder reports
The Dundee Handbook, subtitled “What to do and where to do it”, is unlike other travel guides. Chapter one is headed “Where to Drink”, and goes on to describe the city’s pubs in an astonishing 56 pages.
Further in the book, recommendations on bingo are spread across three pages. But a future edition will be able to include Scotland’s first design museum, V&A Dundee, which opens to the public today.
The imposing £80m structure, bringing echoes of 1970s brutalist concrete to the north bank of the Tay, was designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. It is Kuma’s first building in Britain.
“I’m truly in love with the Scottish landscape and nature,” he says. “I was inspired by the cliffs of northeastern Scotland – it’s as if the earth and water had a long conversation and finally created this stunning shape.”
He describes his building as “a living room for the city”, though it is separated from the centre of Dundee by a busy dual-carriageway.
Locals have already christened the museum the “V&Tay”. While the structure looks tough on the outside, the interior is bright, warm and welcoming.
At the heart of the museum is the restored Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Oak Room, from Miss Catherine Cranston's Tearooms complex in Ingram Street, Glasgow.
Scotland’s most celebrated designer completed the room in 1908, but in 1971 the room was dismantled and its contents stored in a warehouse.
The fittings have been painstakingly reassembled with the help of a single contemporaneous photograph and drawings made in the 1950s by an art student.
Following the destruction of Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art by fire in June, the exhibit is particularly poignant.
Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, says: “This cultural milestone for the city of Dundee is also a landmark moment in V&A history.” He called the museum: “A new international centre for design that celebrates Scotland’s cultural heritage.”
The V&A is opposite Dundee railway station, making it an easy day trip from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. But the hope is that it will attract visitors from England, and encourage overseas tourists to stay in the city.
“It’s made a tangible difference even before it’s opened,” said Dundee city council’s leader, John Alexander. “We are predicting an economic boost in the city estimated in the region of £11.6m a year.”
In the past year, overnight stays have increased by 10 per cent. Two months ahead of the museum’s opening, the Hotel Indigo Dundee opened in a jute mill dating from 1822.
The general manager, William Inglis, said: ”We look forward to welcoming guests from around the globe.”
The V&A has been built adjacent to the RRS Discovery, the ship that took Scott and Shackleton on their first voyage to Antarctica.