This week The Modern House caught up with Deyan Sudjic, Director of London’s Design Museum.

It’s an exciting time for the institution, which is set to re-open on a new site on Kensington High Street in November of this year. Acclaimed designer John Pawson is responsible for remodelling the interior of the Grade II* listed building (the former Commonweath Institute), which, Sudjic says, will ‘redefine the Design Museum as the most inspiring, exciting and engaging contemporary design and architecture museum in the world’.

We asked Sudjic about his own architecture and design interests, his dream home, and his personal house-buying philosophy.

What inspired your interest in modern architecture and design? 
I can remember setting off as a schoolboy on a Saturday for a trip to Coventry to see the recently completed cathedral. I was a bit shocked by Graham Sutherland’s massive tapestry behind the altar, mostly because he had signed it in what I remember as letters a foot high. The idea that the ruins of the cathedral’s gothic predecessor – the victim of WWII bombing – should be retained as part of the composition seemed particularly bold at the time. Even then though, there seemed something a little manipulative about the showy stagecraft; it was perhaps my first exercise in architectural criticism.

The Commonwealth Institute – now the new location for the Design Museum – opened in that same year and the decorative flourishes of the original building have been retained, something in common with the Coventry Cathedral, I guess. Regular visits to the Institute were more or less compulsory for me, and it seemed like an even more impressive piece of what I had no idea would one day end up as the apotheosis of mid-century modern.

If we could arrange a house swap for you, is there a house or apartment block in the UK that you’d go for?
Where to start: I have never been inside one of Denys Lasdun’s double height apartments overlooking St James’s Park in London, but from the photographs they always seemed like the height of modern luxury, located in the heart of the city.

Tell us about the house you grew up in.
I spent the first three years of my life in a block of Mansion flats five minutes’ walk from what is now the Design Museum. Then we moved to a brick-and-tile semi in Acton. It left me with a permanent preference for high density living.

When you’re thinking about buying a house, what’s the one thing you won’t compromise on?
I have always found that the one thing that you have to do when buying a house is compromise. The right house in the wrong place is probably the better way round than the wrong house in the right place.

Is there a British architect or practice whose work you’re particularly excited by at the moment?
What is interesting is that we seem to be in the midst of an architectural generation who are not keen on too much excitement. Mies van der Rohe is alleged to have said that he would rather be a good architect, than an interesting one. It’s a phenomenon that you can see expressed by different architectural approaches at the moment.My favourites amongst these would have to be 6a architects and Assemble.

Who are you following on Instagram? 
John Pawson. His images are simple, but stunning.