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Eavesdrop> Breaking the Bank: Price of Kengo Kuma's Dundee V&A Museum soars sky high

Eavesdrop> Breaking the Bank: Price of Kengo Kuma's Dundee V&A Museum soars sky high

Kengo Kuma’s Victoria & Albert Museum of Design in Dundee, Scotland, hasn’t even broken ground yet, but it has already racked up a pretty substantial bill. In fact, the museum project is expected to cost roughly $80 million, a whopping $35 million more than initially projected. Kuma won the commission back in 2012 and has supposedly already tweaked the design to cut down costs.

“The V&A Museum of Design Dundee is a very complex project, we have done extensive cost checking during the design process, and we have market-tested the major building packages with various contractors,” Kuma’s firm told Building magazine. “Due to several factors, including inflation and current market conditions, the tender returned surprisingly high and this was unexpected even to the main contractors due to the complex nature of the project.”

The project was recently reviewed by the city after the price dramatically increased, but after a meeting this month, city councillors have approved the new budget and are working on a plan to raise additional funds. If all goes well and the City of Dundee can swing the hefty costs with the help of private funding, the V&A will be open by 2018.


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