Twenty-six years ago, a first-year student at the Bartlett School of Architecture was asked to survey Smithfield Market for a design workshop. Today that student, Asif Khan, is finishing work on the building that will house the london museum smithfield market.
The project marks the first phase of the london museum smithfield market’s move from London Wall to Smithfield. The institution was formerly known as the Museum of London. Khan’s studio worked with Stanton Williams, which led the wider scheme, and with Julian Harrap Architects, a conservation practice. Stanton Williams is handling the poultry market, the basement galleries and the covered street that links the two markets. Khan took the general market’s above-ground interiors, its ground-floor public spaces, upper storeys and entrances. The poultry market will follow in a later stage.
A studio built step by step
In 2012, Khan set himself a goal: to work on a major cultural institution within ten years. He had launched his own practice in 2007. Early commissions included a beach café in Littlehampton and the Coca-Cola Beatbox Pavilion at the London 2012 Olympics. The pavilion established the studio’s reputation for spatial design with an interactive edge.
Khan’s ambition to lead a major cultural institution echoes wider shifts in museum building, such as Peter Zumthor’s three-part Fondation Beyeler museum expansion, which shows how new wings can reshape an existing collection.
In 2014, Khan’s studio was the only British practice among the finalists for the Guggenheim Museum Helsinki. He received an MBE for services to architecture in 2017. Since then, the studio has delivered work in 12 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America, Australia and Africa.
Recent projects include a red boardwalk that winds across the Canada Water basin in London. At Expo 2020 Dubai, the studio designed 6 kilometres of public realm. In Almaty, Kazakhstan, it transformed a Soviet-era cinema into the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, which opened in 2025. In London, Khan also designed the 2025 Cartier exhibition at the V&A. He shares the lead architect role on the Barbican Centre overhaul with Allies and Morrison, a project that is still under way close to the London Museum.
Personal stakes
Several of Khan’s projects carry private meaning. The Tselinny building matters deeply to his wife, Kazakh architect Zaure Aitayeva. The Barbican has been part of Khan’s life since childhood. “We were taken there as children, as babies,” he recalls. “It was our family living room.”
Khan says he only accepts work that gives him a personal reason to be involved. He describes the London Museum as “as much a self-portrait as a portrait of London and of this possibility for the institution.”
Across his portfolio, Khan’s spaces tend to connect, flow and invite participation. They seldom dictate how people should behave. Instead, they set up a framework for exploration that looks ahead. His work draws on local culture, sensory experience, material testing and a wish to bring people together.
His Museum of the Incense Road in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, shows the same instincts. The Royal Commission for AlUla chose Khan as architect in 2023, according to a report in The National. The museum is an ongoing project. Khan’s broader vision for the museum. “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 says. That description could just as easily apply to the London Museum.
Inside the new museum
One report says the galleries open on 28 November 2026. The project cost £437 million, funded through a partnership between the City of London Corporation and the Mayor of London, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The same report says the museum holds more than seven million objects. Its director, Sharon Ament, describes the institution as a 24-hour social space. “We asked ourselves, how to be the best museum for London? The answer is, to be London itself, in all its grit and glitter.”
The building divides into three zones. Real Time serves as the entrance, in a covered former street, and shows live data about London. Our Time sits under the domed market roof and hosts events and dinner clubs. Past Time occupies the basement and tells the city’s history in sequence.
If the London Museum’s basement galleries sequence the city’s history, Lucas Museum’s futuristic design meets narrative art offers a useful comparison for how a building can carry a story through its form.
How the london museum smithfield market adapts
Smithfield’s design depends on adaptation. Khan proposed turning 48 historic shop units at the london museum smithfield market into 12 “houses”. The museum will use six of them and give six to outside organisations, selected through a curated mix. Khan calls the result a “coral reef of multiple institutes”, an incubator for ideas that can grow in many directions. Alec Shaw, the museum’s director of new museum project and estate, describes the work plainly. “We were constantly doing open-heart surgery into different parts of the building to try and adapt them to make them more welcoming.”
Khan calls the london museum smithfield market a “sponge for city life”. The building can take on different uses, meanings and activities, and it is designed to keep changing. That idea runs through his wider museum architecture work, from the gentle curves of the Canada Water boardwalk to the Tselinny Center. At its 2025 opening, Khan told reporters the Tselinny building blends modern architecture and culture with a “mythological force from ancient memory.”
The London Museum holds the past, present and future together, and it stays open to change. “It can always be an unfinished project,” Khan says. “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.” For more on the studio’s work, visit asif-khan.com. For the museum’s plans, visit londonmuseum.org.uk.
Sources & Links
Source: wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
How much does the London Museum Smithfield project cost?
The project cost £437 million. It was funded through a partnership between the City of London Corporation and the Mayor of London, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
How is the London Museum’s new Smithfield building divided into zones?
The building is divided into three zones. Real Time serves as the entrance in a covered former street and shows live data about London. Our Time sits under the domed market roof and hosts events and dinner clubs, while Past Time occupies the basement and tells the city’s history in sequence.
Who else worked on the London Museum Smithfield project?
Khan’s studio worked with Stanton Williams, which led the wider scheme, and with Julian Harrap Architects, a conservation practice. Stanton Williams is handling the poultry market, the basement galleries and the covered street linking the two markets.
When are the London Museum Smithfield galleries due to open?
One report says the galleries open on 28 November 2026. The article notes this date comes from a single report.
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