Asif Khan on future thinking and helping design the museum of the 21st century

The London Museum is a full-circle moment for Asif Khan. The east London-based creative was a first-year student at the Bartlett School of Architecture when he was tasked with surveying Smithfield Market for a design workshop; 26 years on, he is about to complete a major collaborative project there and mark a landmark cultural moment: the first-phase reopening of what was formerly known as the Museum of London, which has relocated from London Wall to the site of the famous meat market.

Asif Khan talks to us about the London Museum and more

Khan worked on the project alongside architecture studio Stanton Williams and conservation specialists Julian Harrap Architects. While Stanton Williams led the project and tackled the poultry market, basement galleries and covered street linking the two markets, Khan took charge primarily of the general market's above-ground interiors and exterior. This includes its ground-floor public spaces, upper storeys and entrances (working closely with Julian Harrap Architects), and forms part of the first stage in a staggered launch of a project that will eventually also take over the poultry market next door.

The general market, containing a wealth of public-facing areas, was a fascinating one for Khan, who had set a personal goal in 2012 to work on a big cultural institution within the next ten years. Khan started practising independently when he set up his studio in 2007. Smaller-scale commissions, such as a beach café in Littlehampton and the Coca-Cola Beatbox Pavilion at the London Olympics (a key moment for the firm), put him on the map for his unique blend of spatial design with a dynamic, interactive twist. He was the only British studio among the finalists for the Guggenheim Museum Helsinki in 2014, the largest architectural competition in history. Since then, he has expanded significantly, with work from a broad range of commissions across 12 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America, Australia and Africa, and he was awarded an MBE for services to architecture in 2017.

Recent projects include a meandering red boardwalk across London's Canada Water basin, 6km of public realm at the Dubai Expo 2020, and the transformation of a Soviet-era cinema in Almaty, Kazakhstan, into the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture. Beyond the London Museum, his presence in the capital takes in exhibition design, including the 2025 ‘Cartier' show at the V&A Museum, and a shared lead architect role (with Allies and Morrison, working alongside a wider team) on the overhaul of the Barbican Centre. It is currently ongoing, a stone's throw from the London Museum.

And just as the London Museum featured in Khan's own story long before it became part of his portfolio, there are similar personal connections to more than one of his other projects. The Tselinny building was deeply important to Khan's wife, Kazakh architect Zaure Aitayeva, while the Barbican is a space he felt close to throughout his life. ‘We were taken there as children, as babies. I've been going there all my life. It was our family living room.' He explains: ‘All the projects I do are very personal. I don't take on projects where I don't have a personal reason to be there. I think this one is as much a self-portrait as a portrait of London and of this possibility for the institution.'

What remains constant in all of Khan's projects is his ability to create spaces that connect, flow and allow a high level of interaction. His works rarely prescribe, but rather create a framework for exploration – and ultimately, all look towards the future. Khan regularly employs cultural sensitivity, sensory experiences, material explorations and a desire to bring people together. Speaking of his ongoing Museum of the Incense Road in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, he says, ‘We are trying to think of the museum not just as a repository of history but as a melting pot for the community to meet each other and to transform their livelihoods.' He could be describing the London Museum, too.

At the Smithfield site, his suggestion to transform 48 historic shop units into 12 ‘houses' was welcomed. Six of them would be reserved for the institution's use, and six would be given to external ventures in a mix that the museum would curate. The idea was that it would become an incubator, a ‘coral reef of multiple institutes', as Khan puts it. Alec Shaw, the London Museum's director of new museum project and estate, says: ‘We were constantly doing open-heart surgery into different parts of the building to try and adapt them to make them more welcoming. Without being too grand, I'm hoping this is a complete game changer for city museums across the world.'

Khan describes the new museum as a ‘sponge for city life', and it's easy to see why, as it has been designed to be able to absorb different uses, meanings and activities. The same attitude can be found throughout his work, be it the relatively small Canada Water boardwalk, with its gentle undulation and integration of nature and history, or the Tselinny Center, which, he told us at the opening in 2025, is designed to blend contemporary architecture and culture with a ‘mythological force from ancient memory.'

With the London Museum, Khan tackles past, present and future, as well as big concepts addressing community and culture, ensuring a sense of fluidity remains central so the museum can move alongside its ever-evolving host city. ‘It can always be an unfinished project,' he notes. ‘This is what has been missing, in a way, from the museum of the 20th century. Here, it's baked into the architecture, the capacity and the need to change.'

asif-khan.com

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A version of this article appears in the December 2026 issue of Wallpaper*, available from 5 November in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today