A new gallery designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, 'Mathematics: The Winton Gallery', has opened at London’s Science Museum. Inspired by aerodynamics – with the revolutionary Handley Page ‘Gugnunc’ aeroplane soaring through its midst – the gallery architecture descends down onto the displays, its swooping voluminous curves wrapping up the objects into a convincing case history on how mathematics is the pivot of our human world.
The architects worked with curator David Rooney to design the gallery around 100 artefacts selected from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics collections. A symmetrical pod-like structure made of fabric with a frame of powder-coated aluminium engulfs existing columns in the gallery, creating a central seating area and folding itself around display cases all lit by a soft and unearthly glow, which fades from yellow to pink to light purple.
An interior view of the gallery
The form follows the flow of air that would have swirled around the Gugnunc, which was built in 1929 in Britain – then the safest aeroplane for human travel, playing a crucial role in opening up accessible aviation to the world.
Other tools enveloped in the architecture include a 17th century Islamic astrolabe and Wisard pattern-recognition machine – an early artificial intelligence device. Both help us understand how maths has been intertwined into the human experience over the past four centuries, from travel to astronomy to psychology – enhancing our lives and predicting our future while slowly counting the days and years until we die.
A box of glass eyes used by Francis Galton in his 1884 Anthropometric Laboratory, where he devleoped his theories in eugenics
The architects used computational fluid dynamics to translate the equations of airflow into the shapes of the forms, and robotic manufacture was used to produce the curved benches. Mathematics was a subject that was significant to the late Dame Zaha Hadid, who studied it at university, experimenting with geometry both technically and creatively.
Presenting maths in a new, almost alien, light, ’Mathematics: The Winton Gallery’ is the world’s only permanent public exhibition designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Thanks to principal support from philanthropists David and Claudia Harding, as well as sponsors Samsung and MathWorks, the gallery is free for all to visit.
The gallery presents 100 artefacts from the museum's science, technology, engineering and mathematics collections
The exhibition has been curated by David Rooney, who recently authored Mathematics: How It Shaped Our World to accompany the new opening
The range of objects in the gallery spans classical architecture to furniture design to an early example of the code-breaking Enigma machine. Pictured, Shizuo Ishiguro's Electronic North Sea Model, 1960
This symmetric pod-like structure is a solid form of the air that would have flowed around the Handley Page ‘Gugnunc’ aeroplane, built in 1929
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Science Museum website and the Zaha Hadid Architects website
ADDRESS
Science Museum
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2DD
![Installation views of It’s not my job, it’s your job / Ce n’est pas mon travail, c’est votre travail at [mac] mus e d’art contemporain de Marseille, 2023](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CC3pZWbdpNejcfiv4jeXBB-1280-80.jpg.webp)
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
-
What to see at BFI Flare film festival, 'a rich tapestry of queer experience'As one of the only film festivals to explicitly profile LGBTQI+ cinema, BFI Flare Film Festival remains a unique and beloved event. Here's what to see as it makes its return to London from 19 - 30 March
-
The enduring appeal of Transport for London’s seat designsFrom artist Rita Keegan’s new collage to fashion designer Adam Jones’ Overground suit, TfL moquettes continue to enjoy a cult status
