V&A announced on Thursday that the £80m V&A Museum of Design Dundee will open its door to the public on 15 September 2018. V&A Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, is also the only V&A outpost outside London. It is set to be an international centre for design, a place of inspiration, discovery and learning.

Located on the River Tay waterfront in Scotland, the building was designed by internationally acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who took inspiration from the dramatic cliffs along the east coast of Scotland. Started in March 2015, the construction work on the building's exterior is now complete and the museum fitting-out will begin in February.

The new museum will feature permanent galleries of Scottish design, as well as an ambitious international programme of changing exhibitions showcasing the very best of design from around the world. 300 exhibits across a range of disciplines in free-to-enter galleries will explore Scotland’s design landscape, past, present and future.

Olympic in dry dock, about 1911

V&A Dundee will open its door to the public with an inaugural exhibition titled Ocean Liners: Speed & Style. It will display objects that tell the design stories of the world's greatest ocean liners. Highlights of the exhibition include a wooden panel fragment from the first-class lounge on Titanic and the painting Paquebot 'Paris' by leading US Precisionist Charles Demuth.

Wooden panel fragment from an overdoor in the first-class lounge on Titanic, about 1911. Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Paquebot 'Paris', Charles Demuth, 1921 – 22, US. Gift of Ferdinand Howald. Columbus Museum of Art

V&A temporary exhibitions and permanent galleries will also be complemented by new commissions and installations. Turner Prize-nominated artist Ciara Phillips had been commissioned to make a work to welcome visitors as they reach the upper floor of the museum.

"In just eight months we will be opening the doors and welcoming our first visitors. V&A Dundee is set to be a vital new cultural organisation for Dundee, the UK and beyond, helping to change understanding of just how important design and creativity are to people’s lives," said Philip Long, Director of V&A Dundee.