The National Gallery in London has announced that Tokyo-based architect Kengo Kuma and Associates, in collaboration with UK firms BDP and MICA, will design a major new wing – the gallery's most significant expansion in two centuries.
The decision follows an international competition launched in September 2025, which shortlisted practices including Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Farshid Moussavi and Annabelle Selldorf. In the end, however, the jury awarded Kuma’s design the highest score, praising it as ‘both innovative and beautiful, meeting the ambition and sensitivity required for an international gallery commission’.
The £350 million wing, expected to open in the early 2030s, will be built on the site of St Vincent House, a 1960s hotel and office complex owned by the gallery, just north of the Sainsbury Wing (which was revamped last year). Clad in Portland stone, the new addition will feature landscaped gardens and a rooftop terrace overlooking Leicester Square.
Inside, the ground floor will host public facilities and temporary exhibition galleries. The main gallery floor will echo the Sainsbury Wing with vaulted arches and simple, clean interiors, while the upper floor will adopt a more geometric design, described by the jury as adding ‘variety and a change of design pace’. A bridge will connect the new wing to both the Sainsbury Wing and the original Wilkins building.
The expansion will add 1,500 square metres of permanent hanging space – a 15 percent increase – and 800 square metres of temporary exhibition space, nearly doubling the capacity of the Sainsbury Wing basement.
The new wing is central to Project Domani, a £750 million initiative to redefine the gallery for the coming century. The project also marks a shift in its collection strategy: previously focused on works up to around 1900, in line with a longstanding agreement with Tate, the National Gallery will now display paintings from the late 19th century to the present, making it the only museum in the world where visitors can experience the entire history of Western painting.
Kuma, whose projects include the V&A Dundee and Tokyo Olympic Stadium, described it as ‘a privilege’ to work on the expansion, adding that ‘the National Gallery's collection is a treasure of humanity’.