India, Aug. 2 -- It's a bit like a department store, except it is about the size of 30 basketball courts.

And instead of groceries, there are slices of history on the shelves: a 16th-century Japanese suit of armour; 600-year-old ceramics; wedding dresses from the 1930s.

This is the newly opened V&A East Storehouse.

In an effort more than 10 years in the making, an old warehouse has been redesigned by the renowned American studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The Storehouse is now an array of vast, airy galleries, spread across three storeys, each level arranged around a striking 20-metre-high central atrium.

All the 250,000-plus artefacts stored here are visible to visitors, placed either within transparent wrapping or behind thin glass, ...