While music, art, film, theatre and literature are the fundamentals of our living artistic culture it is in the context of our built environment where so much is actually experienced. As a society we enrich our lives by our relationship with cultural activities. Architecture enables the accumulation of collective cultural capital, social enjoyment and individual pleasure through the destinations that have been created to house extraordinary collections, reservoirs of knowledge and to facilitate the display of objects of artistic, scientific, historical or environmental interest. The presence of cultural institutions and activities have a lasting resonance that represents our way of life, customs and aspirations. We must turn to architecture and design to make this happen.
Wilkinson Eyre have over 25 years of experience in creating publicly accessible special projects that comprise museums, visitor attractions or destinations in their own right by virtue of design and significance.
Societies view of cultural values is in a constant state of evolution and shifting gradually with changing social priorities. Obvious examples are inequality, diversity and inclusion, our relationship with environment and sustainability. As architects we are inquisitive and we listen, so are attuned to what generates a sense of wellbeing.
People are drawn towards architecturally interesting buildings which can continue to entice by the arrangement of spaces and content within. Externally a cultural building will acquire meaning, not only due to its appearance and contents, but also the reason why it is there and what it represents. This meaning is heavily influenced and sometimes calibrated by its architecture. Such a building inevitably represents more than its contents it has agency as an expression of public or social ownership able to encourage civic pride while extending cultural capital to the constituency who visit and enhancing the credibility of the host community.
In designing we try to promote participation in culture with the wider objective of bringing communities together. The objective is to include rather than stand apart. We acknowledge that this works in different ways for different people, sometimes the distinctiveness of the architecture through its novelty is an important draw, but the best architecture is thoroughly thought through and routed in its context, however subtly expressed. We recognise that people experience a venue at a different pace with varying amounts of time and depth of attention. Above all, cultural buildings have the capability to create a sense of place and a narrative, and the best are characterised by the quality of their design.
We work in an era which is highly technologically enabled, drawing in multiple specialisms, where the architect is akin to a conductor of an orchestra who has written some of the music but not all, and the players are writing some too, so it only works with a great deal of collaboration. Our skills in working in consultation with stakeholders are a
critical part of developing a wider more inclusive audience for any project. Our wide reach in designing sustainably and economically is critical in arriving at a product which is enduring and efficient. Materials and systems need to be selected with care with a view to their performance, source, durability, cost as well as any inherent pleasing quality that is part of the architectural expression.
Cultural projects are opportunities for architectural refinement and innovation but moreover mirror many of our key aspirations that architecture can serve; being socially useful, providing destinations, accessible reservoirs of accumulated knowledge and history, reinforcing identity, potentially spatially innovative, enhancing human experience and publicly expressing societies values.
As architects we seek to constantly improve the human experience
1 Magna
2 Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay 3 Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
We are always interested in the contribution to culture that any of our projects can bring
1 The Crystal
2 Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries
3
SeaCity Museum
We feel our imagination, skills and experience can best be brought to bear in the cultural arena, translating our collective labours into successful outcomes that people are then drawn to visit
1 Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre
2 Mary Rose Museum
3 Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay
We are interested in places where people can engage with culture, promoting understanding of art, history, human society and endeavour as well as science and nature
National Waterfront Museum
Kew Alpine House
Sea City Museum
Our approach to design is based around the relationship between people, space, objects and activities coupled with the light that we can bring to bear on them
1 Making of the Modern World 2 Challenge of Materials Gallery
Wellcome Collection
We look for a timeless quality in our design, so that the investment made by institutions and their supporters leads to creating something both new and enduring
1 The Wellcome Wing
Magna
Mary Rose Museum
Culture of Collections
WilkinsonEyre‘s projects are designed to hold significant collections for visitors to view and enjoy, and for researchers and scholars to study
Mary Rose Museum
Portsmouth
Henry VIII’s favourite warship, the Mary Rose, sank during a battle with the French in 1545 with 500 men on board. WilkinsonEyre was commissioned in 2005 to design a museum to permanently house the hull of the ship, which was raised from the seabed of The Solent near Portsmouth in 1982. The hull, supported in a dry dock, requires highly specialist environmental conditions to preserve it, so the design takes an insideout approach, cradling the hull at the centre of the new museum.
A virtual hull has been created alongside this to represent the missing section, within which the original artifacts are displayed in context. These context galleries run the length of the ship, corresponding to the original deck levels and leading to further gallery space at the end of the dry dock.
Details
Location
Portsmouth, UK
Client
The Mary Rose Trust
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Interior Architect
Perkins + Will
Exhibition Design
Land Design Studio
Structural Engineer
Ramboll
Services Engineer
Ramboll
Area
4,500m²
Value
£32.4m
Date
Phase 1 completed May 2013
Phase 2 completed July 2016
Awards
World Architecture Festival Award 2017
RIBA Award 2014
Civic Trust Award 2014 (Michael Middleton Special Award)
Building Awards 2014 (Project of the Year)
RICS Awards 2014 (Design Through Innovation Award)
RICS Awards 2014 (Tourism and Leisure Award)
Medicine: The Wellcome
London
WilkinsonEyre has transformed the first floor of the Science Museum in London to create the largest medicine galleries in the world. Containing more than 3,000 objects selected from the medical collections of the Science Museum and Wellcome Collection, the new galleries offer 3,000m² of permanent display, almost doubling the exhibition space.
The practice collaborated closely with curatorial and interpretation teams on the presentation of artefacts from the collections, drawing out the personal stories behind the objects and bringing them to life.
The design features over a hundred display cases within the galleries, including a Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities), which houses 1,000 objects. Each case is a bespoke design to optimise the display of the objects. In addition, the practice has created a series of brushed bronze fixed
and freestanding units to accommodate 63 audio-visual interactive elements developed alongside the Science Museum’s digital team.
The permanent exhibition also hosts four specially commissioned artworks by prominent artists, allowing visitors a different way to connect with the objects and stories on display.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Science Museum Group
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer ARUP
Services Engineer ARUP
Net internal area 2,945m2
Value
£24m
Date
Completed 2019
Challenge of Materials
Medicine & Bodies Exploring Medicine
Museum of the Future - Masterplanning project
Medicine & Communities Medicine & Treatments
Faith, Hope & Fear
Making of the Modern World
Pattern Pod
The Diner
Antenna Gallery
Wellcome
London
Wellcome Trust launched the Wellcome Collection in 2007, based in the Trust’s former 1930s headquarters in central London, providing a forum for the public to explore the connections between medicine, life and art.
WilkinsonEyre has transformed the building, creating new galleries and spaces to meet the overwhelming demand the Collection has enjoyed. The visitor experience is enriched through a more legible public entrance and an expanded atrium. Crucially, a new dynamic staircase encourages better circulation between the ground and second floors, inviting visitors to the refurbished Research Library, existing and new gallery spaces as well as a destination restaurant.
The redevelopment creates a major new thematic gallery which hosts yearlong exhibitions and a dedicated youth events studio space to support a wide range of activities including workshops, performances and discussion events. The Hub, a new interdisciplinary research centre, and a Science Media Centre, also encourage engagement and collaborations between the scientific community and the public.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Wellcome Trust
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
AKTII
Services Engineer
Max Fordham
Area
16,190m²
Value
£17.5m
Date
Completed March 2015
Awards
2016 AJ Retrofit Awards, Cultural buildings, Winner
2016 Civic Trust Award, Commendation
2017 Structural Steel Design Award, Merit
Dodington Art Gallery
Dodington
WilkinsonEyre has designed an art gallery to house the Dyson family’s art collection at their Dodington Park home in South Gloucestershire.
The Dodington Art Gallery has been carefully designed to create a discreet piece of architecture that fits comfortably into its particular context. The design responds to the secluded site of Dodington Park and pays respect to a Grade II listed brick wall enclosing the garden. A low key pavilion building formed of a series of planar walls set out in an angular pattern and connected by vertical strip windows.
The pavilion structure will comprise two floors and feature angular exterior steel columns clad in bronze to echo the tone of the surrounding brick. The overhanging diagrid roof will be carpeted in sedum plants to minimise environmental impact.
As part of the family’s philanthropic contributions, the gallery will be open to the public on limited days of the year.
Location
Dodington, UK
Client
Dyson
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Date
Completion due 2025
Making
London
Housing the Science Museum’s most important and iconic artefacts, this major new gallery opened to the public in July 2000. The exhibits form a dramatic sequence of objects which chart the rise of the modern industrial world. WilkinsonEyre acted as lead designers for the project, taking responsibility for all aspects of the exhibition design.
Working with the existing architecture, removing some elements entirely and enhancing others, the vast interior space has been transformed to introduce lightness and clarity. A pietra serena stone floor, glass cases and barriers and white concrete plinths for major objects reinforce
a feeling of contemporary monumentalism and create a space similar to an art or sculpture gallery. The arrangement of the exhibition cases, benches and a rejuvenated mezzanine walkway emphasise the linear chronology of the gallery and allow the visitor to pause and contemplate the exhibits.
Location
London, UK
Client
Science Museum
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Battle McCarthy
Value
£1.8m
Date
Completed June 2000
National Waterfront Museum
Swansea
Forming a focus for the regeneration of Swansea’s Maritime Quarter, this scheme includes the renovation of an existing Grade II listed warehouse building and the creation of new galleries to house objects telling the story of Wales’ industrial and maritime past. There is a powerful narrative to the design, which is inspired by the unique history and context of the site. The curves of old railway tracks running across the site offered a strong sense of movement, and their lines have been reinstated into the new buildings and landscape in an abstract form. The new gallery spaces have clear connections to the refurbished museum space, enabling the scheme to be viewed as a single entity. However, they have a strong identity of their own, with the striking use of Welsh slate in a series of overlapping wall planes.
Details
Location
Swansea, UK
Client
National Museums and Galleries of Wales / City & County of Swansea
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Arup
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer
McCann & Partners
Exhibition Designer
Land Design Studio
Area
6,085m² (building); 50,000m² (landscape works)
Value
£15m
Date
Completed August 2005
Awards
RIBA Award 2006
Regeneration Award 2006 (Best Design-Led Regeneration Project)
Museum & Heritage Awards for Excellence 2006
National Eisteddford/RSAW Award 2006 (Exhibit)
Structural Steel Design Award 2006 (Commendation)
Civic Trust Award 2006
Lord Mayor’s Design Award (for City & County of Swansea) 2005
National Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning
Wisley
This new Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning for the Royal Horticultural Society on Wisley’s Hilltop will contain state-of-the-art-scientific laboratories, extensive public exhibition space, teaching studios and new facilities for their nationally important Herbarium, science and library collections.
The project will deliver a major upgrade and step change to RHS Science that will support the delivery of the new Science Strategy, enabling high quality new scientific research and sharing of best practice through public engagement in Horticultural Sciences. The Centre will help to safeguard the internationally important scientific collections for present and future generations.
This new facility will provide the environmental conditions essential to keep these national reference collections secure, and ensure they remain available for the purposes of study and to maintain the integrity, quality and value of the collections as important scientific resources.
A new events space, catering outlet, educational spaces and a prestigious science and public library will also be provided in order to enhance the visitor experience. It will be complemented by new landscaping, including specialist science and educational gardens, acting as living laboratories to share ‘best practice’ for gardeners.
Location
Surrey, UK
Client
Royal Horticultural Society
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Michael Barclay Partnership
Services Engineer
Skelly & Couch
Landscape Architect
Bradley-Hole Schoenalch
Date
Completion due 2020; opening Spring 2021
WilkinsonEyre was lead concept designer on a project to restore and re-purpose the world’s first IKEA store, known as the ‘Old Star’, into a unique IKEA museum experience. The design communicates the IKEA story and core brand values of ‘modern, unpretentious, surprising, functional and practical’. The project also comprises a 400m² shop and a 1,000m² multi-use flexible exhibitions and event space.
The project has restored the 1958 building to its former glory and drastically improved the environmental performance by bringing the building up to the standards expected of a new building.
Internally, WilkinsonEyre has added multiheight spaces to create a light, welcoming entrance lobby with enough space for the expected numbers of visitors to comfortably enter, orient and begin their journey with inspiring and dynamic views into the museum, and improved circulation routes to lead the visitor seamlessly though the experience.
A 500m² museum café is housed in an adjacent 1990s structure. By introducing a canopy to link the two buildings WilkinsonEyre created a ‘public’ square providing both shelter for al fresco dining during warmer months an exciting visual link between the ‘Old Star’ and the café.
Details
Location
Almult, Sweden
Client IKEA
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Exhibition Designer
RAA
Services Engineers
Atelier Ten
Structural Engineers
Atelier One
Landscape Architects
Coe Design
Cost Consultant
Core Five
Local Architects
UULAS
Date
Completed 2016
Central Oxford
The Weston Library is a vital resource for academic research. Part of the University of Oxford’s world famous Bodleian Library, the Grade Il listed building was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the 1930s. However by the Millennium the building had become outmoded and somewhat obscure. Recognising a new vision was needed, the Bodleian appointed WilkinsonEyre to remodel the library as a new cultural and intellectual landmark on this prominent city centre site..
The project has created high-quality storage for the libraries’ valuable special collections; developed more space for the support of advanced research; and has expanded public access to its great treasures via new exhibition galleries.
Other new facilities include a digital media centre, a visiting scholars' centre, a lecture theatre, and a suite of seminar rooms to enable teaching and master-classes based on the library’s special collections. These facilitate contemporary research practices and techniques, supporting the library’s academic users, as well as enabling public interaction with the library’s collections and treasures. The newly refurbished building also includes a world-class conservation workshop and facilities.
Careful consideration has been made to the library’s position within the surrounding cityscape, opening up new ground level entrances to encourage public access for the first time, and knit the building into the wider urban grain.
Details
Location
Oxford, UK
Client
University of Oxford
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Pell Frischmann
Services Engineer
Hurley Palmer Flatt
Area
18,600m²
Value
£50m
Date
Completed March 2015
Awards
Civic Trust Award 2017
RIBA Awards Building of the Year South 2016
RIBA National Award 2016
RIBA Stirling Prize 2016, Shortlist
AJ100 Building of the Year 2016
AJ Retrofit Awards 2016: Listed Project over £5m
Oxford Preservation Trust Awards 2015
Culture of Wellbeing
2
WilkinsonEyre’s projects which either define or contribute to true destinations drawing many people to travel to and enjoy places
Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay
Singapore
WilkinsonEyre was part of a British-led team that won the design competition for one of the most ambitious cultural projects of recent years – the masterplan for Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay. The project, comprising three separate gardens covering a total of 101 hectares was central to the government’s visionary plan to transform the city-state into a City-ina-Garden. WilkinsonEyre’s brief was to design an architectural icon, a horticultural attraction and a showcase for sustainable technology at the heart of the Gardens at Bay South.
The team’s response was the Cooled Conservatory Complex. The two main conservatory structures are among the largest climate-controlled glasshouses in the world, covering an area in excess of 20,000m², and showcase the flora of those environments most likely to be affected by climate change: in the Flower Dome, the cool-dry Mediterranean zone; and in the Cloud Forest, the cool-wet tropical montane.
Details
Location
Singapore
Client
National Parks Board Singapore
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Landscape Architect
Grant Associates
Structural Engineers
Atelier One
Environmental Engineers
Atelier Ten
Conservatories area
24,500m²
Conservatories value
£250m
Date
Completed June 2012
Awards
Special Jury Award, MIPIM Awards 2014
Best Innovative Green Building, MIPIM Awards 2014
RIBA Lubetkin Prize 2013
International Architecture Award 2013
International Project of the Year, Sustain Awards 2013
World Building of the Year, WAF Awards 2012
BCA Design and Engineering Excellence 2012
Structural Steel Awards (Singapore) 2012
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
Gateshead/Newcastle
Winner of the 2002 RIBA Stirling Prize, this unique crossing for pedestrians and cyclists has already become a new landmark for Gateshead and the Tyne, a river famous for its historic bridges. The bridge links Newcastle’s bustling quayside with Gateshead Quays – the new arts and cultural quarter to the south.
The bridge is essentially two graceful curves, one forming the deck and the other supporting it, spanning between two new islands running parallel to the quaysides.
These pivot around their common springing points to allow shipping to pass beneath, using an innovative rotational movement similar to that of a slowly opening eyelid. The parabolic curves of the deck extend the 105m crossing distance to around 120m, giving enough extra length to provide the required clearance above the water. Visually elegant when static and in motion, the bridge offers a great spectacle during its opening operation – both during the day and by night.
Details
Location
Gateshead/Newcastle, UK
Client
Gateshead Metropolitan Council
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Gifford & Partners
Mechanical Engineer
Bennett Associates
Span
105m
Value
£17.7m
Date
Completed September 2001
Awards
RIBA Stirling Prize 2002
(IABSE) Outstanding Structure Award 2005
Balthazar Neumann Prize 2004
Institution of Structural Engineers Awards, Supreme Award For Structural Excellence 2003
Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, Building of the Year Award 2002
Civic Trust Award 2002
Structural Steel Design Award 2002
Brewhouse
The elegant rawness and beautifully ornate functionality of this building, make it unique and intriguing, providing the perfect home for a new brand experience and visitor centre.
Every room in the building shows a different experience, with a myriad of interactive and collaborative features connecting the visitor with the Carlsberg experience.
This project leaves the building largely untouched in its textured patina, adding refined elements to emphasise the existing characteristics, in contrast contrast with crisp, contemporary interventions.
Carlsberg
Details
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Client Carlsberg
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Niras
Area
8,000m²
Value
£16m
Date
Design Completed 2015
Aldin Biodomes
Reykjavik
Details
Location
Reykjavik, Iceland
Client
Spor í Sandinn
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Atelier One
Building Services Engineer
Atelier Ten
Horticultural Consultant
MOSS
Landscape Architect
Landslag
Exhibition Designer
Gagarin
Date
Planning Permission July 2019
WilkinsonEyre has designed an experiential sequence of immersive indoor gardens outside Reykjavik’s city centre. The building sets itself as a gateway to the Elliðaárdalur Valley, the largest green area in the Icelandic capital.
Taking advantage of the site’s sloped topography, a series of domes are proposed to sit at the edge of the existing hill drop. This creates dramatic deep garden with views overlooking the valley and the city. The north-west orientation also guarantees the best view to follow the midnight sunsets during the endless days of summer, as well as the northern lights during the dark winters.
Organised in three main areas – the Main Temperate Dome, the Tropical Dome and the Farm Lab – Aldin Biodomes is an oasis tailored to local people that aims to improve visitors’ wellbeing. Beyond showcasing exotic plants from other environments, the gardens are a retreat in the cold Icelandic winters and an educational place to inform people and children about everyday food and products origin.
Making use of the abundant geothermal energy to heat the domes, Aldin is designed as an example of sustainability as much as an architectural landmark.
WilkinsonEyre was selected to design an opening pedestrian and cycle bridge across Copenhagen’s Inner Harbour. The plan form of the bridge is an elegant sweeping curve that reconnects the two misaligned axes of Vester Voldgade and Langebrogade. The alignment reconnects the city to the ramparts of Christianshavn and encourages the use of this important recreational space. The shape of the two triangular steel edge beams gradually changes as the bridge crosses the water. At the quaysides, the wing-like boxes are angled downwards below the deck, thereby encouraging views up and down the quayside promenades. As the bridge traverses the water, the wings gradually twist skyward, to maximise the clearance below deck and provide a perceived sense of security at mid-span. These gradually warping surfaces capitalise on the play of light and shadow on the steelwork and reinforce the slenderness of the edge condition.
The continuously flowing lines of the bridge offer no clues as to how the bridge opens. Instead, the two opening spans create an element of surprise as they pivot on their supports and swing apart at mid-span. This opening motion provides a spectacle for viewers to enjoy and results in a 35m wide shipping channel.
Lille Langebro
Details
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Client
Realdania
Architect
WilkinsonEyre / Urban Agency
Structural Engineer
BuroHappold / NIRAS A/S
Mechanical Engineer
Eadon Consulting
Lighting Designer
Speirs + Major
Length
156m
Main Span
33m
Value
90M DKK
Date
Completed August 2019
Awards
International Architecture Award 2020
RIBA International Award 2020, Shortlisted
The Construction News Awards 2020 ‘Best Innovation’, Shortlisted
Wood Awards, Education and Public Sector; Highly Commended, 2015
Structural Timber Awards, Best Healthcare
Project 2015
RIBA Regional Award 2015
RIBA Regional Sustainability Award 2015
Maggie’s is an innovative charity that provides emotional and practical support to anyone with cancer. The programme of help provided from each of its centres works as well as it does because of the stimulating and uplifting environment it takes place in.
WilkinsonEyre was commissioned by Maggie’s to develop a design for its centre in Oxford in early 2006. Inspired by the concept of a tree house, Maggie’s Oxford floats amongst the trees in a small copse on the edge of the hospital grounds. Raised on piloti, it treads lightly on the landscape beneath while the twisting geometry of the architectural form creates internal spaces that are full of gentle movement and light.
The design interacts with and embraces nature to provide comfort and reassurance for visitors in their time of need.
The internal plan is composed of three wings emanating from a central space which is a direct interpretation of the Maggie’s brief, allowing separate areas for information, emotional support and relaxation. All are linked to the central welcoming heart of the building which has a kitchen, dining table and stove.
Maggie’s Oxford is the eighteenth Maggie’s Centre to be opened, eighteen years since the first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996.
Royal Ballet School: Bridge of
London
Twisting high above Floral Street in Covent Garden, the Bridge of Aspiration provides the dancers of the Royal Ballet School with a direct link to the Grade I listed Royal Opera House. The award-winning design addresses a series of complex contextual issues, and is legible both as a fully integrated component of the buildings it links and as an independent architectural element.
The skewed alignment and different levels of the landing points dictate the form of the crossing, which is geometrically and structurally simple. A concertina of 23 square portals with glazed intervals are supported from an aluminium spine beam. These rotate in sequence for the skew in alignment, performing a quarter-turn overall along the length of the bridge. The result is an elegant intervention high above the street, which evokes the fluidity and grace of dance.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Royal Ballet School
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Flint & Neill Partnership
Span
9.5m
Value
£800k
Date
Completed March 2003
Awards
AluProgetto Award 2006
Footbridge Award (aesthetics/short span) 2005
Balthasar Neumann Award 2004 (shortlisted) RIBA Award 2004
RFAC Trust/BSkyB Building of the Year Award, Bridge Category 2004
Civic Trust Award 2004
British Construction Industry Awards 2003, Special Award
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Alpine House
London
When it formally opened in 2006, the Alpine House at Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens was the first new glasshouse to be constructed at Kew for more than 20 years. For this signature project, WilkinsonEyre was tasked with creating a sustainable, energy-efficient growing environment for a world-renowned collection of alpine plants. The brief was for WilkinsonEyre to design a building in step with the innovative, highquality glasshouses that are traditional to Kew, raise the profile of the alpine collection and create a new focal point for this part of the site.
Central to the project was the question of how a botanic garden should look in the 21st century. While developing as a tourist destination, Kew still needed to maintain its reputation and increase its public profile as a leading centre for scientific research.
Alpines require plenty of light and cool, constantly moving air, so WilkinsonEyre designed a glasshouse conceived as two back-to-back arches, which create a stack effect to draw warm air out of the building. Below ground level, air is pushed into a concrete labyrinth for cooling, and then recirculated around the perimeter via a series of displacement pipes.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Dewhurst Macfarlane
Environmental Engineer
Atelier Ten
Quantity Surveyor
Fanshawe
Value
£800k
Date
Completed March 2005
Awards
Civic Trust Award 2008
Mies van der Rohe Prize 2007 (shortlisted)
RIBA Award 2006
RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize (shortlisted)
IStructE Award 2006 (shortlisted)
Design Week Award 2006 (Commendation/ Museums & Galleries Category)
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
London
Details
Location London, UK
Client
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Architect WilkinsonEyre
Subconsultants
Chris Blandford Associates, AEA Consulting
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is recognised as a world leader in the field of plant science, with its 300 acre site alongside the River Thames evolving over 250 years. In 2003 Kew was officially inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Our first work at Kew was the preparation of a site-wide Development Plan in 2002. This established an overarching framework for achieving a series of long-term strategic aims which were identified in close collaboration with the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and his team, and is organised around an arc which has formed
the basis for a series of new buildings and landscape features.
Among the WilkinsonEyre projects that have emerged from the masterplan are a new Alpine House and an extension to the Jodrell Laboratory, which will meet a key objective of the plan in improving public knowledge of the role of science at Kew.
Awards
Jodrell Laboratory: Civic Trust Award 2008
RIBA Award 2007
Alpine House: Civic Trust Award 2008
RIBA Award 2006
Completed projects within the plan
Restoration of Kew Palace Sackler Crossing Treetop Walkway and Rhizotron
Shirley Sherwood Gallery
Jodrell Laboratory Extension
Davies Alpine House
Culture of Curiosity
WilkinsonEyre’s projects which are for those that want to find out about how things work or to visit the latest exhibitions
The Crystal London
The Crystal is a new forum for debate on sustainable urban living and development. The striking building was commissioned by Siemens and designed by WilkinsonEyre as both an exhibition centre and think tank, exemplifying sustainable design. It sits within East London’s Green Enterprise District, which is an area of regeneration in the Royal Docks and is adjacent to WilkinsonEyre’s Emirates Air Line cable car terminal at Royal Victoria Dock.
The all-glass building challenges conventional ideas on sustainability, championing the use of advanced technology to minimise energy use. Six different types of highly insulated glass have been used in the cladding, each with varying levels of transparency to moderate solar gain and frame views into and out of the building. Reflective glass is used on the backward-leaning facets to reflect the sun, while transparent glass is used on the inner faces angled towards the ground.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Siemens
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
M&E and Structural Engineer
Arup
Area
7,060m²
Date
Completed September 2012
BREEAM rating
Outstanding
LEED rating
Platinum
Awards
BCO Awards 2013 Innovation Award
Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2013 Best
Sustainable Development - Commendation
RICS Design and Innovation Award 2013
Sustain Magazine Awards 2013 Architecture and Design Category - Finalist
The
Wellcome Wing, Science Museum
London
For WilkinsonEyre, this project represents a new venture in cutting edge interactive exhibition design, and a continuation of the strong working relationship established with the Science Museum through our work at the adjacent Making of the Modern World Gallery and the Challenge of Materials Gallery.
The Wellcome Wing has been designed to be an essentially low light environment, with a blue glass wall on the west elevation combining with blue-lit side walls to create an intensely coloured space. Lighting, therefore, played a significant role in the design of the exhibitions within. These include the Pattern Pod, an innovative interactive exhibit aimed at younger visitors.
The entrance to the wing is framed by a glowing orange zone, creating a strong contrast with the naturally lit Making the Modern World Gallery beyond, and installations by artists and sculptors enliven the space. Large backlit signage panels provide easy navigation, and all exhibits glow with coloured light.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client Science Museum
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
b-Consultants
Value
£1.8m
Date
Completed June 2000
Awards
FX Awards (Finalist/Best Museum) 2001
Design Week Awards (Café Design) 2001
City of London
This project involved the redevelopment of the Museum of London’s original 1976 building on London Wall to provide a new Special Exhibitions Gallery, vertical circulation core, entrance and shop. The striking design of the new entrance canopy projecting over the existing City Highwalk significantly improves the visibility of the entrance, raising the profile of the museum in this dense urban context.
Following on from this core access project, the next phase of the scheme was to reconfigure and expand the museum’s permanent galleries, providing a new City Gallery fronting London Wall. The architectural scheme supports the new exhibition masterplan which re-present the Museum’s collections from the Great Fire of London to the present day. Additionally, a new learning centre is provided and improvements made to the public face of the museum at street level.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Governors of the Museum of London
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Project Manager
Gardiner & Theobald
Structural & Services Engineer
Buro Happold
Quantity Surveyor
Davis Langdon & Everest
Value
£6m
Completed October 2003
Central Oxford
Details
Location Oxford, UK
Client
University of Oxford
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
WilkinsonEyre were the exhibition designers for this mixed-media exhibition, which featured a selection of masterpieces from the library’s collection. The exhibition highlighted the works of extraordinary minds—those graced with sublime flashes of genius and those characterized by lifelong streams of remarkable productivity alike.
In close collaboration with the exhibition’s curatorial teams, we crafted a layout that suited their narrative organisation within the confines of a temporary gallery space so that it delivered a world class exhibition.
WilkinsonEyre and specialist display case manufacturers Goppion joined forces to produce a series of 25 bespoke wall and table cabinets. These cases were designed to accommodate a wide range of objects, meeting stringent environmental and security standards while providing intimate access to the items displayed within.
Additionally, a series of bespoke book cradles was developed, accommodating various book sizes and loadings, designed to make the books appear as though they were ‘floating’ within the cases.
V&A Museum: Ceramics
Galleries Bridge
London
This jewel-like bridge plays an important role in the ongoing development of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It provides a stepped escape route from the newly refurbished Ceramics Gallery across an external space to the adjacent Secretariat block. This functional requirement has been beautifully resolved with a dramatic and elegantly detailed structural form.
A simple folded, perforated stair plate is supported between angled portal frames arranged at regular centres. Shelter is provided overhead by an integrated glazed canopy and the whole composition is celebrated at night by an illuminated wall which will be visible from Cromwell Road outside the Museum. Having received unconditional planning approval, unexpected for such a sensitive site, the bridge was completed in October 2009, in time for the opening of the refurbished Ceramics Galleries.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Victoria & Albert Museum
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Dewhurst MacFarlane
Span
7.5m
Value
£250k
Date
Completed October 2009
Awards
RIBA 2010 Shortlisted
'We The Curious'
Explore@Bristol – now named "We the Curious" – was a Millennium project, as well as the first in a new generation of Exploratory Science Centres. The brief called for the conversion of a listed Great Western Railways train shed to provide a flexible, environmentally friendly space housing a wide range of hands-on science exhibits.
The existing 1906 Hennebique reinforced concrete structure was sympathetically restored and adapted; new glazing at ground floor level was set back from the existing grid to create an arcade and allow the rhythm of the existing structure to remain clearly visible.
A bridge from the first floor gallery leads to a planetarium, housed in a shiny stainless steel sphere 15m in diameter, and partially surrounded by water. This exciting structure provides a dramatic focus for the new pedestrian piazza in front of the building.
An acrylic cylinder in the north gallery houses a eutectic thermal storage system, visible as hundreds of pink plastic spheres, aptly demonstrating to the public the responsive building systems within.
Location
Bristol, UK
Client
Explore@Bristol
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Arup
Area
6,765m²
Value
£10.2m
Date
Completed April 2000 Awards
Civic Trust Urban Design Award 2002
RIBA Regional Award 2001
Museum of the Future, Science Museum
London
WilkinsonEyre was appointed in early 2009 by the Science Museum to explore its vision for ‘The Museum of the Future’, an ambitious project setting out the framework for the Museum’s further development in its centenary year. The work built on the strong creative relationship which has developed between WilkinsonEyre and the museum over almost 15 years of collaboration at the Exhibition Road site.
The proposals include a glowing ‘beacon’ to the front façade of the building, marking the museum’s presence on Exhibition Road and creating more space for meeting and orientation. Inside, new voids and visual connections were opened up between the floors, and the existing Making of the
Modern World gallery was developed to create the ‘Treasury’ - where some of the Museum’s most iconic objects will be brought together. At roof level a new destination gallery - ‘Sky Space’ - is now home of the museum’s famous collection of space artefacts, an immersive environment where visitors will literally be able to look at the objects from the collection ‘in space’.
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Science Museum
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Date
January 2009
Challenge of Materials Gallery, Science Museum
London
Details
Location
London, UK
Client
Science Museum
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Exhibition Design & Lead Consultant
Jasper Jacob Associates
Sound and Light Artist
Ron Geesin
Structural Engineer
Whitbybird & Partners
Value
£1.2m
Date
Completed May 1997
The Challenge of Materials Gallery at the Science Museum was WilkinsonEyre’s first museum project. The Gallery demonstrates the diversity of materials and the limits to which they can be pushed. Both the actual exhibits and the form and construction of the architecture of the gallery were therefore dictated by this theme.
A series of varied architectural interventions created a thematic framework for the visitor, with natural light reintroduced into the refurbished space. The focus of the gallery was the unique and dramatic Challenge of Materials Bridge, spanning the main atrium. Designed to the limits of technical feasibility, the responsive glass and steel bridge was suspended from a series of fine wires linked
to four crescent-shaped steel plates fixed to the building structure. Sensors triggered a computer to relay a special composition by sound artist Ron Geesin, responding to the loads imposed by visitors crossing the bridge.
Awards
RIBA Award for Architecture 1998
Design Week Award for Exhibition Design 1998
Glassex Industry Awards Finalist 1998 (Footbridge)
Design Council Millennium ‘Product’ Award 1998 (Footbridge)
A major regeneration project for an industrial region in decline, we transformed the enormous - but redundantTempleborough steelworks into the UK’s first Science Adventure Centre. With the story of steel as its main focus, the exhibition is organised around the Aristotelian elements of earth, air, fire and water – all essential to the steelmaking process.
Our design concept placed four pavilions – one for each of the elements – within the 400m long, 35m high main shed, connected by steel bridges and walkways. Each pavilion is designed to relate to its theme in a poetic way. The Earth Pavilion, for example, is located in the basement below the ground slab while the air pavilion is designed as a huge airship which seemingly floats in the space.
Meanwhile, the Fire Pavilion is a matte black box containing a tornado of flame, and the water pavilion is enclosed by a coolly-lit wave formed from steel.
The successful design of the project was recognised by the award of the RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK's highest architectural accolade, in 2001.
Fire Pavilion
Earth Pavilion
Water Pavilion
Details
Location
Rotherham, UK
Client
The MAGNA Trust
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural Engineer
Bingham Cotterell Mott MacDonald
Services Engineer
BuroHappold
Fire Engineering
FEDRA
Exhibition Design
Event Communications
Area
31,500m²
Value
£46m
Date: Completed 2001
Awards
RIBA Stirling Prize 2001
Design Week Awards, Leisure Environments
Winner 2002
Civic Trust, Exterior Lighting Award 2002
RIBA White Rose Award 2001
FX / Blueprint Architecture Awards, Best Public Building - Refurbishment 2001
SeaCity Museum
This new museum tells the story of Southampton’s maritime heritage, and in particular the connection between the city and the Titanic. As a maritime city with a long port history, this part of Southampton’s identity – past and present – is almost completely hidden from public view, and the new museum reinforces the city as a cultural destination.
This new museum is housed in the city’s Grade II* listed Magistrates’ Court. The new galleries tell the Titanic story from the perspective of the crew and their families using personal objects, documents, photographs and oral history testimony from the collections.
Details
Location
Southampton, UK
Client
Southampton City Council
Architect
WilkinsonEyre
Structural & Environmental Engineer
Ramboll (Gifford)
Exhibition Designer
Urban Salon
Area
3,105m²
Value
£15m
Date
Completed March 2012
Awards
RIBA Awards 2013 (Shortlisted)
Civic Trust Award 2013
Solent Design Awards 2012 (People’s Choice Award)
Olympic Basketball Arena, London 2012
London, UK
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were billed as the most sustainable ever, and the design of the Basketball Arena was an important part of the architectural mix.
The challenge was to create a temporary building that would not only be simple to erect and sustainable in terms of its post-Games legacy, but also to provide a world-class sporting venue. The solution was a structure to accommodate up to 12,000 spectators for basketball, handball and wheelchair basketball and rugby, and where two-thirds of the materials and elements could be reused or recycled after the Games.
City Law School
London, UK
WilkinsonEyre has recently completed a new home for the City Law School, providing high quality academic space to support the University’s strategic plans, while at the same time creating a sense of community and place on a site that has previously been under-utilised.
The form of the building negotiates between the scale of the Georgian residential streets and the larger more varied grain of Goswell Road, a key arterial road into the City of London close to ‘Tech City’ at Old Street. The scheme is conceived as a series of unified blocks and includes two retained 1920s light industrial buildings arranged around a central atrium space. At the corner of Sebastian Street and Goswell Road a striking seven storey glazed tower employs an innovative ventilated double-skin with patterned interlayers to control temperature and glare.
Emirates Air Line, London Cable Car
London, UK
This cable car across the River Thames represents an exciting addition to the capital’s infrastructure and is the first urban cable car system in the UK.
The crossing provides a valuable and much-needed link between the two major landmark venues of the O2 Arena and the ExCeL Exhibition and Conference Centre on the north and south banks of the river. This new physical link provides a direct connection as well as a dramatic and memorable experience for residents and visitors, and supports the vision of transforming this wider area into a bustling metropolitan district with new businesses, homes and job opportunities.
Dyson Institute of Engineering & Technology
Malmesbury, UK
Guangzhou, China
Compton & Edrich Stands, Lord’s Cricket Ground
London, UK
WilkinsonEyre has completed an undergraduate village for the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology. The landscaped village of modular-housing pods, with communal amenities and a central social and learning hub, is based within the Dyson Campus.
As well as establishing a new typology in student accommodation, the project breaks ground in the design, masterplanning and precision engineering of truly modular prefabricated building technologies for rapid construction. The village is designed to accommodate up to 50 students plus visiting Dyson staff. The high-quality living pods are fabricated from cross-laminate timber (CLT) in a factory for rapid on-site assembly.
Following an international design competition, WilkinsonEyre was selected to design this 440m, 103-storey tower which is one of China’s tallest buildings. It comprises a mix of uses including office space and a luxury Four Seasons hotel with a top-floor, high-end restaurant and bar. At ground level, the tower connects with a substantial podium complex containing a luxury-brand retail mall, conference centre and high-quality serviced apartments.
The tower and podium connect below ground to further retail spaces and a transport hub. The slender tower acts as a landmark to Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town’s main axis, which links the commercial district in the north with the Pearl River to the south.
The vision was for a harmonious relationship between the new Compton and Edrich stands and the Media Centre between them, one which upheld the ‘Village Green’ identity which remains at the heart of Lord’s, the home of world cricket. The proposals provide a range of seating and hospitality areas, new concourses that address the Nursery Ground behind, public realm and landscaping, while increasing the stands capacity from 9,000 to 11,500 seats.
Our designs bring distinctive new architecture to Lord’s that complements the historic and contemporary context, while optimising seating provision, views and public amenities.
Guangzhou International Finance Center
HS2 Old Oak Common
Toronto, Canada
London, UK
Cambridge, UK
CIBC Square will provide a major new mixed-use development and transport hub at the heart of the financial district. The scheme includes twin 250m-high towers flanking a rail corridor and linked at high level by a sky park, plus a new bus terminal for Metrolinx and connections into Toronto’s Union Station, subway and lightrail systems.
As the new headquarters for CIBC Bank, the towers will extend Toronto’s financial district towards Lake Ontario. Both towers feature a lightly folded glazed façade, creating a diamond pattern which adds a vertical scale and modulation contrasting with surrounding buildings. The first phase of this two-phase project is under construction including trading floors, retail and restaurants.
WilkinsonEyre has designed the HS2 Old Oak Common interchange, a major new hub providing connections to conventional rail services including the Elizabeth Line. The station will acting as a catalyst for regeneration and social infrastructure for this part of West London, the subject of a special planning & development corporation.
A series of underground high-speed platforms are linked by a shared overbridge providing connections to conventional rail services. The station’s distinctiveness is defined by a spectacular vaulted roof inspired by the industrial heritage of the adjacent Great Western Railway.
Achieving planning permission in May 2020, we are now delivering the scheme on site.
Lot 1 at Eddington plays a pivotal role in the new North West Cambridge masterplan. A large foodstore creates an anchor for the diverse mix of uses throughout the area. A lightweight canopy structure in the open-air marketplace creates a dynamic and vibrant place to congregate at the heart of the development. The new central CHP energy centre serves the entire development and is devised as a distinctive element which references the tradition of Cambridge chimneys, as well as giving a strong identity to the scheme.
One and two-bedroom apartments are configured within three five-storey blocks, with shared amenity space provided by roof terraces and an internal courtyard.
Eddington
CIBC Square
London, UK
Sydney, Australia
London, UK
With development land in limited supply in every mature city, innovative solutions and collaborative team working are helping to unlock challenging sites. The new development at 21 Moorfields in an example of this approach.
Positioned directly above an existing London Underground station and a future Crossrail ticket hall, this complex oversite development project will deliver a new headquarters building for the City of London. Constraints include building over live rails, limited space for piling and preserving view corridors. The development covers approximately 64,000m² and comprises two office buildings, enhanced pedestrian permeability and a new public square with high-quality retail and improved landscaping.
Creating a landmark and new destination for Sydney Harbour, this sculptural tower won an international design competition for a new Crown Hotel and apartments.
The tower’s form emanates from a threepetal design – the first spreads outwards to form the main hotel accommodation, while the remaining two twist together toward the sky. The six-star hotel and casino feature a number of high-end leisure facilities. Above this sits hotel rooms and suites, with highend residential properties at the top of the tower. Due for completion in 2021.
Designed for Mitsubishi Estate London, this 71,500m² commercial tower is conceived as a series of stacked blocks in response to its urban context.
The 51-storey tower in the heart of the City of London will provide an office-led, mixeduse building with flexible retail space at ground and mezzanine levels, and a public viewing gallery at level 50.
The proposed building will include highsustainability and low-energy initiatives and has been designed to achieve a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. Intense development in this area provided the opportunity to update an earlier scheme with the new design adding a further 11 storeys.
21 Moorfields
One Barngaroo
8 Bishopsgate
Wilkinson Eyre Architects 201 Kent Street
Sydney PO Box R55, NSW 2000
E australia@wilkinsoneyre.com
T + 61 02 9247 0740
www.wilkinsoneyre.com
Wilkinson Eyre Architects 13/F China Hong Kong Tower 8-12 Hennessy Road Wan Chai, Hong Kong
