12 Sep 2014
£60m Science Museum transformation underway
BY Katie Buckley
The evolution of London’s Science Museum is now well underway, with several ‘starchitects’ being named to design its new galleries, while a new exhibition space is now set to open on 25 October.
Universal Design Studio’s Communication Gallery
The impending gallery, designed by Universal Design Studio, is the first in the UK to be entirely dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies.
Boasting 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) of exhibition space, the gallery will feature more than 800 objects from the last 200 years, tracking the phenomenal breakthroughs that the world has seen in the realm of communication.
Filling one of the Science Museum’s largest exhibition spaces, the £16m (US$26m, €20m) Information Age Gallery has a 6-metre high aerial inductance coil at its centre, which was once part of the most powerful radio transmitter in the world.
Zaha Hadid’s Maths Gallery
Zaha Hadid Architects has been chosen to design the new mathematics gallery, planned to open in 2016, in the Science Museum’s historic main building.
At a price tag of £5m (US$8m, €6.3m) - the sum donated by the David and Claudia Harding Foundation - the gallery aims to explore the stories, tools and ideas behind mathematics, making it accessible and fun to the general public.
Hadid said: "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."
View from East gallery entrance, Science Museum Mathematics Gallery - Zaha Hadid Architects
Muf Architecture’s Interactive Gallery
Another recent announcement, and also due to open in 2016, Muf Architecture/art has been appointed to design a £4m (US$6.5m, €5m) Interactive Gallery, encapsulating the awe of science and maths.
Karen Livingstone, director of the museum's masterplan, said the board was impressed with Muf’s “collaborative approach, strong design and bold vision for the new gallery.”
An internal plan of the gallery, aiming to increase visitor movement and interaction - Muf Architecture/art
Wilkinson Eyre’s Medical Galleries
Despite Wilkinson Eyre’s £150m (US$243m, €188m) masterplan for the Science Museum being rejected in 2011, the London-based practice has come back into the fold to design £24m (US$38.9m, €30.1m) worth of Medical Galleries for the iconic institute.
The new galleries will take up the entire first floor of the the museum, covering 3,000sq m (32,292sq ft) of space, and will house objects that explore the last 400 years of medical science.
The Medical Galleries should be completed in time for a 2018 opening. Jim Eyre, director of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, said: “We are very pleased to be working with the Science Museum again and look forward to embarking on the design of these object-rich gallery spaces."
Rendering of the first floor Medical Galleries from Wilkinson Eyre
Coffey Architects’ Library and Research Centre
Coffey Architects, another London-based practice, has been picked to design a £1.8m (US$2.9m, €2.3m) library and research centre for the Science Museum - a further part of the five year masterplan - due to open in 2015.
The new public facility will fill the first floor and ground floors of the institution's Wellcome Wolfson Building, completed by MJP Architects in 2004.
Practice director Phil Coffey commented:"The scheme itself is a simple idea to recreate the feeling of sitting under a tree, on a summer’s day, reading a book… offering a unique space with a strong identity to be enjoyed by both casual and academic users."
Coffey Architects' airy research space offers a quiet place for reading and study
The Science Museum’s Masterplan will transform around a third of the world-renowned museum over the next five years. Currently in the first stage, the overall project amounts to roughly £60m (US$97m, €75m). This has been raised through a combination of generous donations and grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
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