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 st