This eight-storey, windowless cocoon by Danish architect CF Moller is the centrepiece of the £78m, 16,000m2 second phase of the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London.

Completed this week, it is the largest sprayed concrete curved structure in Europe. The competition-winning design will exhibit 20 million specimens and house the museum’s 200 researchers.

Bam Construct (formerly HBG UK) is the main contractor, with Arup as structural engineer, Fulcrum Consulting as services engineer and Turner & Townsend as cost consultant.