The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London has received planning permission for the Darwin Centre Phase Two.

The £65m, 180,00sq ft (16,722sq m) building will house the museum’s entomology and botany collections – totalling 28 million insect and six million plant specimens – within a giant curved cocoon encased within a transparent outer structure.

Designed by CF Moller Architects, the Darwin Centre Phase Two will offer controlled conditions to protect the dry specimens from heat and humidity.

Phase One of the Darwin Centre opened in September 2002 and contains the NHM’s 22 million animal and fish specimens stored in spirit.

A fundraising campaign has already raised £59.5m towards the cost of the development, with major supporters including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Wellcome Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline.

The new centre is scheduled to open in 2008.