Commonwealth Institute

The Commonwealth Institute has a history that reflects Britain's evolving relationship with its former empire, transitioning from a colonial research centre to a modernist architectural icon and eventually the home of the Design Museum. The institution began as the Imperial Institute, founded in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and was originally established to conduct scientific research into raw materials from across the British Empire and to promote commercial development. It was initially housed in a grand Victorian building on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, which opened in 1893. In 1958, it became a modernist landmark and remained one until 2002. To reflect the emergence of a post-colonial Commonwealth, the institution was renamed the Commonwealth Institute in 1958 via an Act of Parliament and a new home was commissioned on Kensington High Street, designed by architects Robert Hiogg Matthew (1906-1975) and Sir Stirrat Andrew William Johnson-Marshall (1912-1981).

The building was completed in 1962 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The building is famous for its hyperbolic paraboloid roof—a 'tent-like' copper structure that was a feat of engineering at the time. The interior featured permanent galleries designed by James Gardner (1907-1995). By the millennium, the Institute faced financial difficulties, and the building became too costly to maintain. Operations at the Kensington site ceased in 2002, and the building stood empty for over a decade. Following a major £80 million redevelopment, the building reopened in 2016 as the new home of the Design Museum. While the transformation saved the iconic roof, heritage groups like the Twentieth Century Society criticised the project for demolishing almost everything beneath it, including the original interiors and landscaping.