The £49m refurbishment of The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford started on 22 March.

The existing 19th century extension to the original grade-I listed Cockerell building is set to be demolished and replaced with a new 8,812sq m (94,850sq ft) exhibition hall to double the amount of available display space.

The hall will house new galleries displaying collections previously kept in storage, which will be presented to visitors using a periodic storyline. New environmental controls will allow rare and fragile items to be exhibited.

The galleries comprise the Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology Gallery; Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Gallery; Chinese Galleries; Greek Galleries; Indian Gallery; Islamic Gallery; Japanese Gallery; Money Gallery and Textiles Gallery.

A new purpose-built Education Centre will expand the number and range of programmes on offer to meet the needs of visitors of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. It aims to cater for around 24,000 children each year on school visits.

A separate entrance and after hours access will also permit community use.

New departmental study centres will provide additional facilities for research and teaching to allow students, specialists and the public to handle collections, consult curators and take part in seminars.

A new environmentally controlled conservation suite will care for fragile textiles and paintings.

The Western Art galleries will feature an exhibition – Treasures of the Ashmolean – throughout the redevelopment project, which will include highlights of previously unseen archaeological and oriental collections.

Rick Mather Architects designed the project and Metaphor Design created the vision for the exhibitions in cooperation with the curators.

Funding sources include the Heritage Lottery§ Fund (£15m); The Linbury Trust; Antiqua Foundation; Arrow Charitable Trust; Leventis Foundation; Weston Foundation and Wolfson Foundation.

The museum will reopen in 2009. Details: www.ashmolean.org