The National Gallery is extending — both in physical space, and artistic remit. Here’s what you need to know about Project Domani.
What is Project Domani?
Project Domani (Domani is Italian for ‘tomorrow’) is a planned £750m extension of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square — the most significant transformation of the Gallery since its formation 200 years ago. In September 2025, the National Gallery launched a competition for a new wing, to be built on the site of St Vincent House, to the immediate north of the Sainsbury Wing. The site — purchased decades ago by the Gallery, with a view to building on it one day — currently houses office space and a hotel.
65 Project Domani submissions were received from architects, which included heavyweights such as Norman Foster and Renzo Piano. The final design was selected in April 2026.
What’s the winning National Gallery extension design?
Kengo Kuma and Associates (designers of 2019’s Japan National Stadium), along with BDP and MICA were overall winners of the competition.
Mock-ups of their design show a contemporary style building featuring Portland stone (sympathetic with much of the rest of the building), with striking vertical ridging and fins. The ground floor will feature vaults and arches (again, a nod to the original gallery architecture), while an upper floor gallery will have a more geometric feel.
The new wing will landscaped with garden spaces outside the entrance, and feature a garden roof terrace, accessible to the public — and certain to be popular with them too.
Didn’t the National Gallery just have a big revamp?
In May 2025, the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing reopened with a ‘once in a lifetime’ rehang of its collection, with an enlarged entrance foyer, although this wasn’t a new extension per se.
The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery was opened in 1991, to house the gallery’s early Renaissance paintings. It was built following an infamous speech made by then-Prince Charles in 1984, in which he decried proposals for an extension by architect Peter Ahrends, as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. Ahrends’ plans were subsequently spiked. In 2024, a note from the Sainsbury Wing’s donor, the late John Sainsbury, was discovered inside one of its false columns, stating his (posthumous) ‘absolute delight’ that whoever had discovered this note was presumably in the midst of demolishing these ‘unnecessary’ features.
The National Portrait Gallery (next door neighbour of the National Gallery, but a separate institution) reopened in 2023, following a major revamp.
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Which artworks will be on display in the new National Gallery extension?
None of the artists or paintings that’ll be on display have been revealed. Many might not have even been acquired yet. However, the National Gallery has confirmed that the new wing will exhibit paintings beyond 1900, which, as a rule, has been the cut-off date for paintings it shows (though there have been a handful of exceptions). Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, has previously described it as “slightly frustrating to reach 1900 and then not go on.” The move into modernism will make the National Gallery the only museum in the world which exclusively displays paintings, in which visitors can view the entire history of painting in the Western tradition.
Doesn’t the Tate deal with the modern art in this town?
Yes, in fact, a deal was in place between Tate and the National Gallery, confirming that the latter wouldn’t get involved with paintings post-1900. (“It is, frankly, a facile date to choose,” opined the art critic Will Gompertz, in 2016.) However, the National Gallery has now reneged on that deal — something that’s set to shake up London’s art scene. Though the Guardian points out that Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate, officially welcomed the announcement saying it looked forward to working closely with the National Gallery to “further the national collection as a whole”, behind the scenes it’s likely that Tate feels uneasy.
When will the National Gallery’s new wing open?
That’s not confirmed, although some sources suggest the early 2030s.