Pros Supports multiple big radiatorsExcellent dust filtrationSpace for open-loop cooling components Cons Not fully EATX-compliantMidpack thermal performance in our tests MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ Specs 120mm or 140mm Fan Positions 10 120mm to 200mm Fans Included 3 Dimensions (HWD) 20.6 by 9.3 by 19.5 inches Fan Controller Included? Front Panel Ports HD Audio Front Panel Ports USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (2) Front Panel Ports USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Included Fan Lighting Color Addressable RGB Internal 2.5-Inch Bays 5 Internal 3.5-Inch Bays 2 Internal Chassis Lighting Color None Maximum CPU Cooler Height 165 Maximum GPU Length 400 Motherboard Form Factors Supported ATX Motherboard Form Factors Supported MicroATX Motherboard Form Factors Supported Mini-ITX PCI Expansion Slot Positions 7 Power Supply Form Factor Supported ATX Power Supply Maximum Length 260 Power Supply Mounting Location Bottom Side Window(s)? Yes (Tempered Glass) Weight 23.5 All Specs MSI has built a formidable reputation over the past four decades, beginning with motherboards and working its way through servers and graphics cards before finally becoming a premier laptop manufacturer. Its name is synonymous with shopping for PC components, but its PC cases usually come to mind only when we think of its prebuilt desktop machines. Built from sturdy materials and loaded with popular features, its $149.99 MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is designed to leave a more lasting impression. Supporting MSI’s reverse-connector Project Zero motherboards and smartly designed for accommodating a substantive build that’s air- or liquid-cooled, the Velox is a worthy rival to Asus’ TUF Gaming cable-hiding case. PC builders weighing a Project Zero build to minimize visible cabling should shortlist this chassis, though the selection of reverse-connector-compatible PC cases is growing fast.Design: Packing in the Features for Project ZeroWith a sturdy steel structure making up most of its 23.5 pounds of heft, the MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is as weighty as its name is long. (We’ll call it“Velox 300R” from here on out.) Its numerous strengths include dust filters that cover every air inlet, giant 160mm ARGB intake fans connected to a factory-installed controller/hub, and even a logo-emblazoned low-restriction faceplate that will probably help make any dust that collects on the filter behind it slightly less noticeable as the PC waits for its next cleaning. A light tint on the 4mm-thick tempered glass side panel makes the black 120mm exhaust fan harder to spot against the case’s black interior. Mounted on four snaps and three guide pins, the faceplate easily pulls away to access the front panel’s plastic-framed nylon-sheet dust filter. Secured with three magnets on each side, the filter pulls easily away from the fans for cleaning.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Though “front-panel” ports and buttons often end up on the top panel of modern cases, the Velox 300R’s placement is somewhat unusual in that it’s a bit farther away from the actual front of the case than on most cases. Lined up along its right edge are a power button with a power-indicator LED window, an LED mode button, a headset (headphone/microphone) combo jack, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and a Gen 2x2 Type-C port. Unfortunately, there’s no reset button or drive-activity light.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The rear panel features the only Velox 300R vents that aren’t covered in dust filters, though that’s okay; these should probably be viewed as exhaust vents that flow filtered air from those big front-panel fans. We also see the ATX standard’s seven expansion slots, a 120mm exhaust fan screwed onto slots that allow a little vertical adjustment, a power supply mount with two sets of holes to allow inverted mounting, and two vertical vent sections running up the forward and rear portions of the right side panel.The expansion-slot panel is inset, which simplifies graphics card installation. (In short: There's no interference between the card bracket and the clearance area above the screws, as there sometimes is with cheaper cases with non-inset panels.) (Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)A long dust filter that covers most of the bottom panel slides out the back of the case from beneath the power supply bay.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The top panel and two long side panel vents are each covered internally with a perforated metal filter sheet, each of which uses magnetic tape around its periphery to stick to the steel panel.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The Velox 300R’s top panel is designed to hold a 360mm-format radiator up to 420mm long. (The radiator will have around 57mm of clearance above the motherboard’s top edge.) The Velox 300R’s top panel also includes a second set of mounting slots to enable three 140mm fans to be placed there instead.From this angle, we can also see that the power supply cover has two 120mm fan mounts, that an adjustable card brace is attached slightly forward of the power supply cover, and that a removable multi-purpose bracket is factory-mounted to the 120mm fan location at the front of the case’s bottom panel. The bracket is drilled to hold a single 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive, as well as a variety of open-loop liquid-cooling pump/reservoir combos.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Like the multifunction bracket that sits in front of it, the outer three-quarters of the power supply cover is removable. That fact eased the installation and removal of modular cables on our power supply.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The Velox 300R’s motherboard tray includes several extra pass-through holes designed to fit the connector locations of MSI’s Project Zero motherboards, but they are not excluded, in any way we can see, from otherwise supporting its largest competitor’s rear-facing-connector design, Asus BTF. A side mount that can hold up to three 120mm fans and/or 360mm-format radiators up to 440mm long is offset an inch behind the motherboard tray, so that a fan up to 38mm thick could fit behind an EATX motherboard if we add the length of the standoffs to that thickness. We wouldn’t call the Velox an EATX case, because it has no mechanical support to hold 13-inch-long boards, but some slightly bigger-than-ATX boards will fit without requiring such supports.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Behind the Velox 300R’s motherboard tray are its ARGB controller/fan hub and two drive trays. (Note that we also pulled the face panel off for our open case photos.) The controller’s hub supports four PWM fans and four ARGB devices.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Removing the plastic plugs above and below the front-face 160mm factory ARGB fans allows us to see that the fan rails running up and down the face are also removable. Had we also removed the factory-fitted 160mm fans themselves, we could have used the extra mounting holes you can see to move the brackets inward to 140mm or 120mm fan spacing. The 480mm of space (height) behind that mount exceeds the length of any 420mm-format radiator we’ve seen, so you could put a really big radiator up front if you so desire. That said, you'll probably want to keep these oversized fans if you are air cooling; they have a nifty design, with an offset circle of blades inside a larger circle(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The drive trays include one dual-2.5-inch tray without 3.5-inch provisions and one with 3.5-inch provisions. Installing a 3.5-inch drive fitted with vibration-damping grommets precludes the use of any 2.5-inch drives in the second tray.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Building With the MSI Velox 300RLet's dig into the accessory kit. The Velox 300R includes an installation guide and a case sticker, four combo-head power supply screws, a Phillips-to-hex-adapter socket for installing standoffs, two spare standoffs, and lots of additional screws. These include 21 standard M3 screws, eight M3 and four #6-32 shoulder screws (for installing drives onto the grommet-filled drive tray), and 12 extra-long #6-32 screws (for installing 120mm fans to the top of the power supply cover). You also get a bag of six replacement snaps for the ball-snap side-panel attachments, and two hook-and-loop and six zip-style cable ties.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Case cables include a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 for the Type-A ports, a Type-E Gen 2x2 for the Type-C port, and an F_PANEL combo cable with breakout pins for a reset button that the case itself lacks. The ARGB controller/fan hub accepts PWM and ARGB control signals from the motherboard and is powered by a SATA-style power cable from your PSU.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Our standard ATX motherboard fit the Velox 300R perfectly, and its card brace slid up to meet the edge of our test graphics card’s fan bracket nicely.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The ARGB controller defaults to obeying the motherboard’s signal whenever its ARGB input is connected to the motherboard, but those who won’t be using motherboard control can also scroll through the controller’s inbuilt patterns via its mode button or even disable lighting entirely simply by holding the button for a few seconds.Here’s how the Velox looked all fleshed out with our standard test parts...(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)MSI also sent along one of its motherboards, based on the Z790 chipset, so we could show this PZ (Project Zero) case built with its cable concealment fully deployed. This photo shows how all the cable headers that would have been pointing outward on a traditional motherboard point backward on this model.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)We’ll have to push some of those ARGB fan controller/hub cables aside to reach the ARGB and ATX12V headers of the Z790 Project Zero motherboard.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)We’ll also have to stuff away a little more cable length since most of our cables are no longer required to reach around to the front of the board.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Though the displaced power and data cabling cleaned up the show side of our build nicely, we still have our graphics card’s supplemental power cable (12VHPWR) and our AIO CPU cooler’s tubes to contend with. Still, mighty clean and almost "Zero."(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)And though the Z790 Project Zero motherboard has far less lighting than the board from our standardized kit, some would argue that it still looks better thanks to the reduced cable clutter.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Testing the MSI Velox 300R: Twice-Benchmarked, Once With Project ZeroHere’s a list of the internal components from both of the above-photographed builds, along with the settings we used for our tests.The Velox 300R’s thermal performance is exactly mid-pack when using our standard test kit, and swapping in the rear-connector motherboard only resulted in a faster-warming voltage regulator (likely due to the lower mass of its heat sink). Its temperature control falls behind its most direct competitor, the Asus TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB, in both configurations.The reason the Velox 300R’s cooling performance fell behind the Lian Li Lancool 207 and GT302 ARGB appears fairly obvious when observing our noise charts: It’s quieter than both those cases.Both companies were aware that they could get better thermal results simply by spinning their fans a little harder, but MSI appears to have favored a quieter approach. Be aware that simply enabling the automatic fan profiles for your motherboard could potentially put all three of these cases into a tie with regard to both temperature and noise.

Thermalright is a Menace: Dozens of New Coolers, New Case, 17-Blade Fan, & Mini PCs, ft. CEOMay 30, 2025Last Updated: 2025-05-30We take a look at Thermalright’s crazy amount of air coolers, closed-loop liquid coolers, fans, and examine the company’s first caseThe HighlightsThermalright continues to overwhelm the CPU cooler market with a crazy amount of coolers at cheap pricesThermalright showed off its first case, the TR M10 MATXThermalright is experimenting with fans of all kinds, ranging from high-end all-LCP and metal fans to more modest PPT onesThe company also unveiled a number of new closed-loop liquid coolersTable of ContentsAutoTOCGrab a GN Soldering & Project Mat for a high-quality work surface with extreme heat resistance. These purchases directly fund our operation, including our build-out of the hemi-anechoic chamber for our acoustic testing! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)IntroWe visited Thermalright’s booth at Computex 2025 and the company handed us a big booklet showing everything the company was showing at the show. It’s impossible for us to remember the names of everything the company was showing at the event as there just too much of it, but we'll try to highlight the most interesting products.Editor's note: This was originally published on May 20, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.CreditsHostSteve BurkeCamera, Video EditingMike GaglioneVitalii MakhnovetsWriting, Web EditingJimmy ThangThermalright Air CoolersThe biggest thing that Thermalright is doing when it comes to coolers is mostly in digital displays and screens. The company showed off many CPU air coolers at Computex and only a few don’t have them. Frost TowerThe company’s Frost Tower comes with a 140mm fan in the middle coupled with a 120mm front fan. The middle fan is 27mm thick and the front fan is a standard 25mm. Thermalright is targeting about $50 for the Frost Tower. The company is using LCP blades, which is very expensive, and a 30% fiberglass reinforced PBT for the frame, which is a balancing mechanism for cost. It uses a 6-pull fan and its fin-stack is soldered, which is higher quality than press-fit.Royal LordThe company’s Royal Lord cooler is supposed to be a $43 cooler and it uses 2 fans. Thermalright says it’s an extra $10 if you want to add an extra LCD to it. Like the Frost Tower, its fin stack is also soldered. It uses 7 heat pipes with a 30% fiberglass reinforced PBT for its fans, which are both 2x25mm. Thermalright FansR-Series Fans The company will release its R5 and R9 fans. The number denotes how many blades the fans will have. Thermalright says the R5 fans are designed to push air through radiators. The R9 fan has 9 blades and is a 28mm thick fan. The company is moving towards LCP on a lot of its fans. X12 FanThermalright showed off a fan with 17 blades that’s completely made out of metal. It’s got a zinc alloy frame and aluminum blade set. It’s just a prototype for now and costs the company $100 to make, which tells you a little about how much it might cost for the company to mass-produce it. The unit we saw was fully CNCed. 17 blade fans are very abnormal. The company says it would mostly be useful in mini PCs. The fan uses an all-metal design to get the blade-tip clearance to functionally be 0. The fan also has an inner ring to it. Thermalright Stream Vision Liquid Cooler Grab a GN15 Large Anti-Static Modmat to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and for a high-quality PC building work surface. The Modmat features useful PC building diagrams and is anti-static conductive. Purchases directly fund our work! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)Thermalright showed off numerous liquid coolers, but we’re only going to focus on one. Thermalright’s Stream Vision is supposed to be $100. The liquid cooler comes with a screen on it and there’s also a fan that cools the memory and VRM. One of our suggestions to Thermalright is to angle the grill on the sides of this fan away from the mounting brackets. The company is trying to compete in the liquid market more. Rainbow Vision and Wonder VisionThe company is also competing with Tryx’s panoramic cooler. Thermalright has an interchangeable screen with one of the 2 options providing a full separate cold plate. They are 2400x1800 resolution from what the company told us and leverage a 60Hz panel. One of the options is a 6.67-inch OLED display. Thermalright says that both options should be about $200. TRM10 CasesThermalright also showed off a case that it’s been working on, the TRM10. The company hasn’t made computer cases before. It’s one of the few products that it’s not making in its factory. Thermalright’s plan for cases is to do what they’re doing in the cooler industry, which is to be extremely competitive when it comes to pricing. The cheapest version of the TRM10 will be $45 and the more expensive one will be $65. The more expensive model will come with an LCD display on the side and a digital display on the front to display numbers like the time. The cheaper one, on the other hand, will most likely just come with a steel plate instead.  The mATX case is mostly steel with a bunch of perforations on the top and glass for its sides. The top of the case also has plastic that is made to look like brushed aluminum. Inside the chassis, there’s a good amount of depth for the cable management and it has passthrough for the cables at a side angle with the exception of the EPS12V, which is on the top. Everything else about the case is pretty standard. Looking inside the case, there’s a lot of perforation, like at the top and bottom of the hard drive cages, which is a good thing to see. The top of the power supply shroud is also heavily perforated along with the bottom of the case. There’s about as many holes as you can get in the case.  The case is going for airflow with its panel design, with the exception of the front, but the side makes up for some airflow. The steel in the middle of this panel adds some rigidity and is also probably a play on Thermalright’s logo.   Thermalright Mini PCsWith its mini PCs, Thermalright is trying to compete with Minisforum and the company tells us that the mini PCs we saw will be liquid cooled. This theoretically means it should have better thermals and be a little quieter compared to competing systems if it’s done well. Pricing is still TBD but Thermalright says they will be cheaper or equal to competing mini PCs, which we take as Minisforum. The company started running a benchmark on one of its mini PCs with a 100% load and we saw the CPU, which is an AMD 395 SOC, temps being 61 degrees C, though that may ramp up as it hits steady state. Thermalright showed off 3 models.One of the mini PCs at Computex was just there for show. The unit in the image above is fully CNCed. It looks super nice with its red accents, but it’s not something the company is planning to sell unless there’s a lot of demand for it.  Thermalright Tank PCLeveraging its factory, Thermalright wanted to build something cool and took 3 months to make a computer that looked like a tank. The company told us it’s composed of around 450 pieces.Thermalright CEO Interview Visit our Patreon page to contribute a few dollars toward this website's operation (or consider a direct donation or buying something from our GN Store!) Additionally, when you purchase through links to retailers on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.We also conducted a brief interview with Thermalright’s CEO. To check that out, make sure to watch that portion in our Computex video.

Macworld People have high hopes for the Apple Watch in 2025 after the Apple Watch Series 10 disappointed in 2024. Despite rumors of major design changes, the Apple Watch 10 turned out to be more or less identical to every Apple Watch sold over the last few years. The display was just a tad larger and the body was slightly thinner, but overall it was very similar to the Series 9. At this point you might look to the old adage: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Apple’s Watch follows a proven formula that has brought a lot of success. It should be no surprise that the company isn’t rocking the boat. That might be forgivable, but Apple didn’t even update the Apple Watch Ultra or Apple Watch SE in 2024, leaving both with an older processor generation. Luckily this year it looks like Apple will deliver some long awaited Apple Watch features. Read on to find out what’s in store for Apple Watch Series 11 in the fall of 2025? Here’s what we’ve heard so far about the 2025 Apple Watch. We’ll run though what’s expected for each Apple Watch model below, starting with the Apple Watch Series 11. Apple Watch Series 11: Release date Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 For years now, Apple has announced the new Apple Watch together with the new iPhone at a September event, with both products going on sale the following week. We haven’t heard anything to make us think that won’t be the case again this year. The most likely date is the second Tuesday of September, which is September 9. Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 11 will probably begin that Friday (September 12) with general availability in stores a week later (September 19). Apple Watch Series 11: Price Likely to start at $399, unless Apple has to raise prices Ever since the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple has kept starting prices the same for the aluminum Apple Watch and we don’t expect a price hike this year. This means that the Series 11 will start at $399 and the larger version will cost $429, with an extra $100 for cellular capability and higher prices for various bands. With the Series 10, Apple also offered a titanium case for $699/$749, which includes LTE like the Ultra. Rumors suggest Apple will keep that option around with the Series 11, likely at the same price. However, no discussion of future Apple product pricing is complete without mentioning U.S. tariffs, which are changing rapidly and could have a big impact on pricing. It’s simply too difficult to predict whether tariffs will increase the Apple Watch’s price, the odds are significant. Apple Watch Series 11: Design The Apple Watch Series 11 is likely to look nearly identical to the Series 10.Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry Rumors throughout 2024 told us to expect more significant changes to the Apple Watch design last year, and then the Series 10 debuted and it looked like a very slightly flattened Series 9. This year, there aren’t even any rumors of big design changes. Currently, all signs point to an Apple Watch that is identical in appearance to the Series 10, with the possible exception of new colors, possibly sky blue to match the MacBook Air and iPhone 17. Apple Watch SE 3: Release date, price and design Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 Apple hasn’t updated the Apple Watch SE since 2022 and that update was an extremely minor one, bringing a new chip and crash detection with a lower price of $249. It was initially rumored that 2024 would bring a substantial update to the budget watch with a plastic redesign, but that didn’t happen. Then Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that a plastic SE redesign would arrive in 2025 alongside the Series 11. However, a rumor in March claimed that the new Apple Watch SE had run into production issues and was in “serious jeopardy.” So Apple may need to switch to an aluminum design for the new SE or stick with the current model for another year. The Apple Watch SE hasn’t been updated since 2022.Henry Burrell / Foundry Apple Watch Ultra 3: Release date, price and design Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 We do expect that there will be an Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2025. Rumors so far point to 5G and satellite texting capabilities, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Apple Watch Ultra 2025 might also be slimmer. And yes, the display might be even larger. In addition to that you can expect all the features coming to the Apple Watch Series 11. Apple Watch 2025: Features coming to the Apple Watch Apple has been working on incorporating a microLED display on the Apple Watch for several years, according to various leaks and rumors, but it’s not expected to debut on the Series 11 this year. Some think this display shift will come to Apple Watch Ultra first, but even that isn’t expected in 2025. Health We’re not expecting any new health sensors. Apple’s blood glucose monitoring initiative is still years from ending up in a watch, it seems, and while there have been rumors of high blood pressure monitoring, that’s apparently not quite ready to appear this year, either. Specs So what will be new? You can bet on a new S11 SiP (system in package), offering somewhat better performance. Don’t expect a big boost in battery life, though—that has been a near constant 18 hours for nearly the entire lifespan of the watch. Apple Intelligence and the new Siri could be one of the new features of watchOS 12 and the Apple Watch Series 11.Michael Simon/IDG Apple Intelligence AI is a key aspect of almost every new Apple product now, and rumors suggest Apple is working on bringing some AI features to the Apple Watch. The actual AI models probably won’t be able to run on the watch; rather, the watch will gather data, the processing will be done on your iPhone, and then the watch will display results or notifications. Many of the new AI features will likely debut as part of watchOS 12, but some might be kept as Series 11 exclusives in order to help differentiate the hardware. 5G and Satelite It’s also rumored that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 will support 5G cellular and satellite messaging, which could also come to the Series 11. Apple debuted a wireless chip in the iPhone 16e, but it’s not clear whether it’s small or efficient enough for the Apple Watch yet. No changes? The Series 11 could just be a ‘Series 10s’ We criticized the Apple Watch Series 8 for being largely the same as the Series 7, and the Series 9 for being almost identical to the Series 8. This looks like it could be another one of those years, where there are only very minor changes to the Apple Watch that you won’t even notice in everyday use. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad watch, or that Apple is in trouble. There is virtually no competition for the Apple Watch, and as long as Apple keeps pressing forward with watchOS software features, it’s likely to keep selling a lot of Apple Watches. But if you’re hoping for a major change to the Apple Watch hardware, you’ll probably have to wait another year or more.

At the entrance to Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) historic home in South Kensington, wide stone steps rise toward an ornate facade of carved Portland stone, with heavy wooden doors set beneath an archway that declares culture as cathedral. It’s built to inspire, yes, but also to intimidate—to display the spoils of a national collection shaped by colonial reach. On the other side of London, the same institution has opened its doors to V&A East Storehouse, with access to over 250,000 objects. The facility designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) transforms the obscure world of museum storage into a public experience of collecting, conserving, and storytelling. Like the South Kensington museum, Storehouse also leaves its imprint, inspiring wonder at a moment when public trust in cultural space feels so thin. As Tim Reeve, deputy director of the V&A, put it: “Creative industries are one of the very few success stories of the UK economy.” That creativity is being unpacked. V&A East Storehouse is located inside the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre. (© Hufton+Crow) The 262-by-262-foot (80-by-80-meter) cultural warehouse—once the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre—now welcomes visitors through a plain, functional entrance. Its galvanized steel doors are a modest update on the flexible shell designed by Hawkins\Brown. A plain, functional lobby hosts a new outpost of e5 Bakehouse, softened by new plywood interiors by Thomas Randall-Page. Upstairs, into a brief airlock, and onto a narrow walkway lined with classical busts in crates and on palettes, as if not fully unpacked, you glimpse the ladders, forklifts and shelving below, before you are shot into the dramatic central atrium—a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a place still learning what it wants to be. A surplus of sports venues and a scatter of freshly minted towers jostle for identity, and somehow, the V&A opening up its innards fits right in. Storehouse isn’t a museum—there are no labels, no curation, no interpretation. It’s a working storage facility, a peek behind the curtain. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments—some visible, others swaddled after reaching their “light quota.” It’s a new idea for museum storage, one that began in Rotterdam in 2021 with MVRDV’s Depot and is put on steroids here, but DS+R are not new to shifting paradigms. “It’s an idea whose time has come,” said architect Liz Diller. She notes that the firm’s work on the High Line has been used—perhaps overused—as a reference point ever since it opened: “It becomes a kind of model for others. I think people will interpret the idea in their own ways,” she added. The central atrium is a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. (© Hufton+Crow) “The Storehouse defies the logics of conventional taxonomies,” said Diller. “Where else would you encounter suits of armor, stage cloth, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, thimbles, chandeliers, motorcycles in one place next to each other?” These objects were previously hidden away in Blythe House, Olympia, alongside collections from the British Museum and the Science Museum—until the government announced plans to sell the Edwardian bank. This prompted a conversation about what its storage can and could be. The space spans approximately 172,000 square feet (16,000 square meters)—a fraction of the V&A’s over 850,000 square feet (80,000 square meters) at South Kensington—but it’s dense with meaning. It now houses 250,000 objects and has been designed with five years of growth in mind, with plenty of empty shelving still in view. Patrons can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. (© Hufton+Crow) The object collocations feel accidental but profound. What is a Frankfurt Kitchen, with its strict Bauhaus order, doing just down the walkway from the ornate, gilded Torrijos ceiling from Toledo? Why does a safety curtain control panel share a shelf with a bamboo wind instrument? Everyday objects aren’t elevated so much as exposed—invited to speak on new terms, next to things they were never meant to meet. There are smaller, curated exhibits too—some behind glass—assembled using a modular “kit of parts” display system designed by IDK. There are opportunities for the public to view conservators at work. (© Hufton+Crow) Anyone can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. If the objects are small enough, they’ll be brought to you at a table. If they’re big, you go to them in the darker parts of the museum. As Diller put it, the Storehouse is designed with “an inside-out logic,” where the center is public, the middle semi-private, and the outer edge reserved for conservation, research, and protected storage. There are moments where private and public parts interact, for instance in the “conservation overlooks,” where you can watch the conservators at work from public galleries. It quietly teaches that the arts are an industry too; there are opportunities besides being an artist. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments. (© Hufton+Crow) Some of what Storehouse allows you to see is uncomfortable. The colonial overtones are hard to miss. These are objects taken from across the world—beautiful, rare, complex—and now stored in a warehouse in East London. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is on the ground floor where visitors can walk on the glass floor above it, breathtaking and fraught. This is a first step—a way of airing our institutional laundry in public, and inviting interrogation, reinterpretation, and hopefully reckoning. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is among the objects on view. (© Hufton+Crow) Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922. (© Hufton+Crow) Mostly, there is a sense of happy chaos, but there are moments that stop you. Down a quiet corridor sits a towering black-box space, spanning two floors. Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922—a reproduction of Picasso’s Two Women Running Along the Beach. “This is the largest space,” said project architect David Allin. “It lets you see oversized objects from two levels and even watch the conservators at work.” This cloth will later be replaced by the one that the tall space was designed around: the larger Firebird—Natalia Goncharova’s 10-by-16-metre stage backdrop. Here is where you can feel the V&A talking to itself across the city: South Kensington in its lofty register of imperially reaching cast courts, and the Storehouse answers with its mirror image. I catch my breath in front of Le Train bleu, first at its vastness, but then at the hulking crate parked behind it. The Storehouse is rewriting the story and showing us its workings. Ellen Peirson is a London-based writer, editor, and designer.

For homebuyers interested in new construction, common options range from customizing a builder’s model to working with a design-build firm to create a one-of-a-kind home. But in recent years, a quieter trend has emerged: Some buyers are skipping the blueprints and starting with a blank canvas by purchasing undeveloped, or “raw” land.While the pace of land sales has cooled slightly, a Realtor.com analysis still shows a 1.2% increase in transactions in 2023. The data coincides with broader real estate trends, from housing inventory shortages to a rising interest in multigenerational living. The top land markets, according to Realtor.com, are California, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Colorado. “For many of my clients, [buying undeveloped land] comes down to freedom, creativity, and privacy,” says Harley Bush, a real estate agent with Caughman Realty in Midlands, South Carolina. “They want the ability to design every inch of their home, not just pick from a builder’s limited models. They want space to grow, the ability to orient their home around a lake view or sunset, or even create a small family compound.”That said, buying land to develop and build a house on comes with significantly more considerations than purchasing a home or building one in an existing neighborhood. Ahead, some tips from real estate pros on how to buy undeveloped land, including the steps you need to take and the hidden costs and hurdles that can pop up. Related StoriesIs it Worth it to Buy Undeveloped Land? Altaf Shah / 500px//Getty ImagesBuying undeveloped land is attractive to buyers who want customization that it allows for, but there is a unique set of risks and some extra due diligence that comes with going this route, says Matthew Coates, president and principal of Coates Design Architects. In addition to design freedom, those who buy raw land generally get more acreage, more mature landscaping, better views, and fewer neighbors, he points out. Buyers can also create a more sustainable and energy-efficient home, something that’s more difficult to retrofit into an old house.“The most successful buyers I deal with see it as a long-term project right from the start, rather than thinking it will be a quick endeavor,” Coates says. “They ask the right questions, assemble the correct team, and go in eyes wide open.”That long-term mindset is especially important when it comes to infrastructure. Buyers should be prepared for some logistical hurdles. The big four are water, power, sewage, and road access, says Elena Novak, the lead real estate analyst and researcher at PropertyChecker.com, a property records search site.“In rural areas, you may need to drill a well, install a septic system, and build a road to reach the site,” Novak says. “If electrical service is far away, utility companies may charge thousands to bring in a new line.” Some buyers also forget about internet and cell service, and may need to explore alternative options like satellite.How to Buy Undeveloped LandDan Reynolds Photography//Getty ImagesBecause buying undeveloped land is a more technical process than purchasing or building in a pre-existing neighborhood, you’ll want to assemble a team of professionals that can help you navigate the process. Work with a real estate agent who has experience with land deals and can help guide you through the many steps, like zoning research, soil testing, and well and septic planning, Bush recommends. Experts also recommend working closely with surveyors, builders, a real estate or land-use attorney—and, in some cases, a local planner or civil engineer—to help ensure there are no surprises leading up to closing.Here’s some key steps to take when buying undeveloped land with the intention of building a home on it, according to Novak. 1. Understand zoning and land use regulations.Start by confirming the property is zoned for residential use and investigating any limitations that could affect your building plans. “Not all residential-looking land is buildable,” Novak says. “A buyer should visit the local planning department to verify what can legally be built, whether permits are available, and if there are restrictions like easements, flood zones, or conservation overlays.” A land survey can also help you confirm property boundaries and flag any encroachments or easements.2. Coordinate soil and percolation tests.This is especially important in rural areas where a septic system may be needed.3. Consult with an architect and builder Bring in professionals to assess the land’s buildability based on slope, layout, and access. “Land might appear perfect on the surface, but hidden challenges can be expensive,” Novak says. “For example, steep slopes may require retaining walls, and wetlands or protected species on-site can limit where and how you build.”4. Have a title search and legal review performed This step helps uncover any liens, boundary disputes, or rights-of-way that could delay or derail your project, Novak says. It’s also worth noting that fraudulent listings of vacant land have become a common scam tactic. A proper title review can help protect you from being caught in one of these “title pirate” schemes.“Land deals are more technical than buying a home,” Novak says. “But with the right team, the right checks, and a bit of patience, it’s one of the most rewarding ways to create a home that truly reflects your values and lifestyle.”How to Finance Undeveloped Land RyanJLane//Getty ImagesThe most common path to financing undeveloped land is securing a lot loan, which typically requires a larger down payment and carries higher interest rates due to the lack of collateral, since nothing has been built yet.You’ll start by going through a pre-approval process, says Loren Fellows, Vice President, Mortgage Production Manager at Johnson Financial Group. The last thing you want is to sell your current home or be in the middle of drawing up plans before learning that you don’t qualify for the loan.Once you’re ready to build, your lot loan can often be rolled into the financing of the construction loan, she says. If you already own the land, you may be able to use the existing equity in your lot toward the down payment required on the construction loan.Construction financing usually happens in two phases. First, there’s short-term financing that covers the cost of building the home. During this phase, borrowers typically make interest-only payments based on the amount the builder has drawn so far. Once the home is complete and the final draw is made, the loan can then be converted into a long-term, fixed-rate mortgage.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.