As the Victoria and Albert Museum prepared to expand and reimagine how its collections are accessed, the challenge extended well beyond design and construction. The launch of V&A East, V&A Storehouse, and the redeveloped Young V&A required robust operational foundations to ensure each site could confidently open with resilience.

Mortice were engaged as trusted advisors to support the V&A. With these multiple new challenges, our role was to help the museum establish resilient frameworks, operational models and strategies that would enable smooth mobilisation, continuity across the estate, and long‑term success.

Our Approach

Our work began with a detailed review of existing documentation and current operational arrangements. From this, we established a target operating model. This allowed us to define what was essential for opening day, while also setting out a scalable model, aligned with the museum’s longer‑term ambitions. Through service and market reviews, benchmarking, and business‑case development, we supported informed decision‑making around service scope and delivery models.

We translated operational requirements into clear specifications, budgets and operating models, and supported the procurement of FM service contracts. Throughout, we worked closely with design, construction and user teams to ensure operational thinking was embedded in the process, and reflected real‑world use.

As the projects moved towards opening, we provided mobilisation support and helped integrate new‑site requirements with the V&A’s existing operations, to ensure a consistent visitor and staff experience across the estate.

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V&A Museums

HereEast: V&A Storehouse grand opening