Museum in the Countryside

A new public building for this museum in the English countryside is proposed to significantly increase the exhibition and public programming capacity. The new building will house large flexible exhibition spaces, an auditorium and research facilities.

The proposed building is rooted in the local farm building tradition. Large agricultural structures have an inherent beauty; largely due to their functionalism and their use of local materials – in this case timber clad, shingled roof and brick plinth. The barn typology, with its inherent pragmatism and adaptability, is in fact very well suited to a museum space. Large volumes and few openings mean that light can be carefully manipulated into gallery spaces and circulation routes can be a source of drama.

A sequence of exhibition spaces organised around a central void and staircase are accessed initially by the lower ground entrance and vacated by way of a bridge which links the new museum building to the existing farmhouse buildings. The farmhouse building will be extended to accommodate a new cafe and museum shop overlooking the gardens while administrative offices, research, archiving and storage facilities are rehoused in existing buildings.

The entry sequence is conceived as a journey back into memory, with a long, gradually sloping descent that cuts down into the earth providing a liminal, contemplative space before entering the museum.