500 years of history under one roof

The contents of the permanent Scottish Design Galleries, which will feature between 250 and 300 objects, will be drawn from 17,000 Scottish works in the V&A collections. They will come from over 500 years of history, to the present day.

These will include objects as small as china pieces and as big as a car or a room.

The museum, which will open in 2017, has planned its first two years of visiting exhibitions, which will fill its 1,100 square metres of temporary exhibition space.

Every year will see a major "blockbuster" summer event - including many taken from the V&A's major listings, such as its recent David Bowie show, its new Constable exhibition, which opens next week, or the major Alexander McQueen show to be staged next year.

Today the positions of chief operating officer and head of audience and media will be advertised for the project. BAM Construction was this week appointed as builder.

Senior curator Ghislaine Wood, based at the V&A in London, has been working on the contents of the Scottish Design Galleries.

The earliest object will date from the late 15th century, a Medieval Book of Hours, or devotional book, made in France, but commissioned by a Scottish patron.

"There will be things of all different scales, everything from ceramics made in China for export to Scotland, to material by Phoebe Anna Traquair [the Irish artist prominent in the Scottish arts and crafts movement], for example," Mr Long said. "We hope there will be an automobiles and even some room interiors and some pretty large scale objects, so it is very exciting.

"Some are by designers and makers who have made an enormous contribution but are barely known in the country from where they were from."

The design galleries is intended to be in place for 10 to 15 years. It will include a Basil Spence Allegro chair from 1949, made for H Morris and Co of Glasgow from plywood, and a William Scott designed furnishing fabric from 1959 made by Edinburgh Weavers.

Donald Brothers of Dundee, textile makers, will be represented from a collection of more than 150 pieces of hessian.

A McKenzie tartan dress from the 1850s will be exhibited in the 600 square metre exhibition space for Scottish design, made from Lyon silk in France.

A silver box made by Phoebe Anna Traquair, from her own collection and not seen in public before, will be on show, dating from 1928.

A large cabinet made by Bruce James Talbert from the 1860s will be exhibited, as well as a Hebridean Carpet designed by George Bain, a key figure in the Celtic revival, made for a house in Kidderminster in the 1940s.

The outcome of the independence referendum will not upset plans, Mr Long insisted.

Martin Roth, the director of the V&A in London also said a Yes vote in next week's independence referendum would not alter plans.

"We try to keep calm and carry on," he said. "It will go ahead, absolutely.

"The funding is more or less is done, maybe the long term perspective we would have to discuss in a different way, but it is far too early. I was asked the question two years ago, and I said we would put the file from National to International, and in the beginning it was a joke, but now I say, let's do it like this."

Mr Roth said he was confident it would attract visitors to the Dundee waterfront.

"It will be a very honest programme, it will be real, there will be great objects, it will talk to people in the way they can listen," he said.

Creative Scotland has given £5 million towards capital and development costs. The Scottish Government has committed £15 million for the build with an extra £9.4 million awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Another £15 million is to come from private donations, with £6.9 million raised so far.