Museum of the Home

Having successfully worked with the Museum of the Home, previously The Geffrye Museum, for over 25 years, we worked alongside Wright & Wright Architects on the upgrade and extension of the museum’s Grade I-listed spaces.

Key information

Architect

Wright & Wright Architects

Client

Museum of the Home

Value

£13.5M

Year of Completion

2021

Sector

Services

Challenge

The museum's brief focused on transforming the visitor experience and ensuring that the Museum was protected and sustained for generations to come. We provided a range of services - MEP engineering, acoustics, lighting design, and building physics and modelling – and were closely involved both in developing the Museum’s existing historic buildings and in creating new public and support spaces.

Opening the lower ground and first floors of the main almshouse building has enabled visitors to explore previously unseen parts of the museum and gain facilitated access to all buildings and gardens, ensuring the programme of community events can be expanded. New gallery and library spaces allow for more treasures from the collections to be seen and enjoyed, and an additional entrance, opposite Hoxton station, has been created. A new Learning Pavilion and Studio Pavilion revitalise the existing learning activities and programmes for people of all ages.

The Museum's existing buildings have been sustained and retrofitted to make sure all operational energy is used in the most efficient way. Alongside this, the museum and design team's focus on maximising re-use of the existing buildings ensures the development is inherently low in embodied carbon.

Our project team

Total of 3 people

Mark Nutley

BSc PhD CEng CPhys MInstP
Director, MEP Engineering
Partner

Michael Pangalis

BEng MSc CEng MCIBSE
Principal Engineer
Partner

Caroline Webb

MEng CEng MCIBSE MSLL
Senior Engineer
Partner

Environmental strategy

Our design for the environmental and energy strategy was influenced by the Museum’s desire to achieve stable humidity conditions in the art exhibition and collection areas, while minimising operational energy and carbon as much as possible. In keeping with the approach we took with the museum over 25 years ago (putting the environment first and being very light with mechanical interventions), a predominantly passive strategy has been adopted for the new exhibition areas and stores. This also allowed for discreet solutions that simultaneously fulfil the Museum’s environmental needs and minimise the space taken for services.

A key environmental achievement is that energy-intensive air conditioning has been avoided. Together with Wright & Wright, we tried to find the right balance between insulating the building and respecting its historic nature. The environmental design is based on allowing the conditions within the spaces to vary throughout the year, thus minimising the energy loads. The solutions we developed include the use of windows and low-energy fans for ventilation, as well as taking advantage of the thermal mass of the existing structure, where possible.

In addition to designing the core services, we worked closely with ZMMA on the fit-out of the new Home Galleries. We designed the exhibition lighting to mimic daylight and support the impression of being in a daylight-filled living room, even in a semi-basement. Insulating the roof and collection floors, and making everything as airtight as possible, has not only contributed to balancing out the room climates, but has also enhanced the acoustics within the museum.