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According to AJ sources, a team led by the rising star is favourite to win the major commission known as the Western Range renewal project having seen off an impressive shortlist of big names. However, her appointment cannot officially be announced until after the contract award standstill period, which allows time for the competitors to lodge a challenge.The finalists, announced in August, included architect-led multidisciplinary bids headed by 6a architects, David Chipperfield Architects, OMA, and a collaboration between Eric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects.Ghotmeh is best known for her 2020 Stone Garden housing tower in Beirut, the Herms leather workshop in Normandy, France, which opened in 2023 and the Serpentine Pavilion, in London of the same year. The British Museum commission will be her practices first major job in the UK.AdvertisementAn explanation of the teams vision posted on competition organiser Colanders website claims the proposals would transform the Western Range into a living museum a place of dialogue and reinvention creating an archaeology of the future, where historic narratives intertwine with contemporary perspectives.The bold transformation, it continues, would renew the British Museum as a global meeting point of shared history, where poetics and care foster peace and understanding.Late last year models and images were submitted as part of a day-long charrette to test the capabilities of each architecture team shortlisted for the overhaul of the western area of the Grade I-listed museum. Those models, showing the teams initial approaches, went on display in the Round Reading Room in December 2024. Source:ShutterstockLina GhotmehThe competition was structured to allow the museum to select a team, rather than a fixed outcome in the form of a design proposal, and deliberate limitations were put in place so the finalists did not arrive at a complete plan for the project.Instead, they were asked to demonstrate their ability to lead a collaborative process that responds to the complex needs of multiple stakeholders, both within the museum and from external groups.AdvertisementThe British Museum refused to confirm Ghotmehs contest victory. A spokesperson told the AJ: The active phase of the competition has now concluded, and each team has hosted the panel of judges for a final presentation at its studio.At present, no contract has been awarded. The British Museum expects to award a contract and announce the winning team in the coming weeks.Although the international competition attracted 60 entrants, it proved controversial, due to the major financial backing the museum is receiving from fossil fuel giant BP. In January last year environmental campaigners called on architects not to take part in the contest because of the 50 million funding pledged to the Bloomsbury-based institution by BP.In recent years, BP and other oil and gas companies have been increasingly shunned by Britains cultural industries, with Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Shakespeare Company among the institutions turning down sponsorship.When the British Museum announced its partnership with BP in late 2023, it prompted the resignation of trustee Muriel Gray, former chair of the Glasgow School of Art, while Doug Parr, the UK policy director for Greenpeace, said the deal must surely be one of the biggest, most brazen greenwashing sponsorship deals the sector has ever seen. Source:Trustees of the British MuseumThe Western Range scheme is part of a decade-long renovation masterplan billed as one of the most significant cultural redevelopment projects ever undertaken.The job will be the museums biggest building project since the 1820s when work began on Robert Smirkes original Greek Revival-style quadrangle. The 100,000m museum has around 3,500 different rooms and features more than eight million items in its permanent collection.The museums chair, former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, described the redevelopment last year as one of the biggest projects of our time. He said: We asked for the best of the architectural community to step forward to help and they have, from Britain and across the world.The competition comes three years after the museum named four architects on a 45 million construction consultancy services framework: Avanti Architects, Dannatt Johnson Architects, Nex Architecture and Wright & Wright Architects.Stanton Williams completed a new Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum in 2019. In 2014, RSHP completed the museums World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre extension.Each of the shortlisted teams received an honorarium of 50,000 to participate in the design phase of the competition.The shortlist[WINNER] Lina Ghotmeh Architecture with Ali Cherri, Arup, Holmes Studio, Plan A, Purcell6a architects with Advanced Integrated Solutions, Arup, David Bonnett Associates, Gitta Gschwendtner, Kellenberger-White, London School of Architecture, Purcell, Studio ZNADavid Chipperfield Architectswith AEA Consulting, Adamson Associates, Alan Baxter Associates, Arup, Atelier Brckner, Atelier Ten, Lobe Lloyd, Julian Harrap Architects, Plan A, Reusefully, Neal ShasoreEric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects with Buro Happold, David Bonnett Associates, Max Fordham, Mima, Price & Myers, Purcell, Space Syntax, Studio ZNAOMA with Arup, Benoy, Cookies, Ducks Scno, EQ2 Light, Purcell, Salvatore Settis, Studio ZNA