News: Zaha Hadid has won the commission for a new gallery dedicated to maths at the Science Museum in London, with a design that explores "the many influences of mathematics in our everyday lives".

The £5 million David and Claudia Harding Mathematics Gallery will become a permanent addition to the Science Museum, as part of its planned £60 million redevelopment.

Set to open in 2016, the Zaha Hadid-designed space will  present the "tools and ideas" that tell the story of mathematics from the 17th century up to the present day.

"The design explores the many influences of mathematics in our everyday lives; transforming seemingly abstract mathematical concepts into an exciting interactive experience for visitors of all ages," said the Iraq-born British architect, who was also recently selected to design a trio of skyscrapers for Brisbane.

The centrepiece of the gallery will be a Handley Page aeroplane, a 1929 British experimental aircraft with a 12-metre wingspan, which will be suspended from the ceiling.

Hadid saw off competition from architects Carmody Groarke, Hugh Broughton, Casper Mueller Kneer, Adam Richards Architects and Universal Design Studio to win the project.

"With this gallery we want to evoke the kind of excitement around mathematics as our Collider exhibition has done around particle physics," said museum director Ian Blatchford, "and with Zaha Hadid's extraordinary designs this project is off to the best start imaginable."

"This appointment reflects our ambition to deliver the world's foremost gallery of mathematics, both in its collection and its design," he added.

The mathematics gallery is the fourth commission revealed by the museum this year as part of the redevelopment masterplan, set to transform a third of the building over the next five years.

Wilkinson Eyre has been appointed to create £24 million suite of medical galleries, while London-based Coffey Architects is designing a new £1.8 million library inside the museum's Wellcome Wolfson Building, and artist and architect collaborative Muf was selected to design a £4 million interactive exhibition.