Design of New Mary Rose Museum
Design Approach
The design of the new £27m Mary Rose Museum - by Wilkinson Eyre Architects
(architect and design team leader) and Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will (architect for
the interior) - is a story of collaboration, with the project team combining delicate
conservation, contemporary architecture and specialist technical expertise to create
a truly unique design.
Like crafting a jewellery box to house a precious gem, the design team has together
created a building and interior that protects and showcases the Mary Rose. Designed
from the inside-out, the Museum building takes many of its cues from the historic
ship, allowing its hull, artefacts and exhibitions to take centre stage and create a
visitor experience befitting this remarkable piece of history.
At the heart of the project, within a carefully controlled environment, is the starboard
section of the hull of the Mary Rose. Alongside it, a virtual port-side has been
created over three levels to view the ship and house the context gallery. Encasing
the Mary Rose and the largest collection of Tudor artefacts in the world is an
architectural form that alludes to the historic significance of the Museum’s collection
and announces the arrival of a major new cultural attraction.
The architecture
When working with a treasure like the Mary Rose, the architecture needs to
complement rather than distract. In this case, the challenge was finding the right
architectural language to help articulate the story being told by the Museum, whilst
adding a confident piece of contemporary architecture to Portsmouth Historic
Dockyard.
The simple, pure elliptical form of the new building is derived from toroidal geometry
echoing the shape of the Mary Rose; its timber is reminiscent of the ship’s historic
hull, showcasing the innovative Carvel construction methods of the 16th Century.
Further embedding the building in its maritime heritage, the timber has been stained
black to reflect England’s vernacular boat shed architecture. Inscriptions drawn from
the ciphers used by the crew of the Mary Rose to identify their personal belongings
have been carved into the shell. A balcony to the west offers a spectacular vantage
point over the Historic Dockyard and its numerous 18th and 19th Century Grade I and
II* listed buildings as well as modern warships docked within Portsmouth Naval
Base.
The challenges of the site’s historic context, adjacent to HMS Victory and the listed
Admiralty buildings, are compounded by the nature of the site itself: a late 18th
Century Dry Dock that is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Care has been
taken to keep the height of the Museum as low as possible to remain sensitive to the
proportions and scale of the surrounding buildings. The low-profile, shell-shaped
metal roof follows this logic and reduces the internal volume of space which has to
be environmentally controlled to precise standards to ensure the conservation of the
hull.
Two rectangular pavilions are attached to each side of the main building, one
housing the main entrance reception, café and shop, and the other occupied by the
Learning Centre and main plant room. The overall composition is a piece of
contemporary architecture, an elegantly simple form with an air of mystery that
encourages visitors to enter and explore.
Chris Wilkinson, from Wilkinson Eyre Architects, said: “When you have a treasure
like the Mary Rose, which continues to capture the world’s imagination, the
architecture of the building takes a supporting role. However, the building has a very
significant part to play in projecting the Museum and its remarkable collection to the
world, creating intrigue and heightening the visitor experience of this major cultural
attraction.”
The interior
The essence of the design of the interior evolved from the frozen moment in time
seconds before the Mary Rose capsized and sank.
The excavation and raising of the Mary Rose not only established new
archaeological standards, it also uncovered and lifted an extraordinary collection of
Tudor maritime life from a moment in time, the 19th July 1545. When she capsized
onto her starboard side, she along with tens of thousands of objects quickly settled
into a scour pit, covered by layers of protecting silts in the Solent. This provided a
time capsule of the ship, her fittings, weaponry and armament, and all the
possessions of her 500 crew and soldiers from the Admiral to the common sailor.
The interior architecture concept was based on the painstaking archaeological
excavation and recording of the exact location of every find. A section through the
ship from keel to upper deck allowed the project team to see inside the Mary Rose
and reunite the original contents deck-by-deck at the moment before she capsized.
There was no strength left in the original ship timbers even after the lengthy
conservation process, so a virtual hull was constructed to represent the missing port
side with all the guns on their original gun carriages, cannonballs, gun furniture,
stores, chests, rope and rigging. Visitors to the Museum walk in between the
conserved starboard section of the hull and the virtual hull on three levels, seeing all
the main shipboard material in context as though they are on board the Mary Rose.
The end galleries then interpret the context gallery deck by deck in more
conventional museum display cases, designed by Land Design Studio.
The atmosphere of being on the ship is further enhanced by the walkways following
the shape of the deck from stern to bow and low ceilings on the lower deck. The
Museum spaces are deliberately dark with daylight excluded and the only lighting
either focused on the objects or concealed under the walkway handrail, lighting the
space and re-creating the dark claustrophobic spaces below decks.
Two museum interiors have been designed – the first for 2013 to 2017/18 and the
second for the period after 2018. Initially the Mary Rose will remain in her protective
cocoon while she is dried and be seen through windows on the three levels of the
context gallery and the lifts. However, on completion of this final phase in the
conservation process, the context gallery walkways will be opened and the Mary
Rose and all her contents will be seen together.
Chris Brandon, Principal of PBP+W, said: “This museum is unique – the only one in
the world to take its inspiration from the archaeological finds of the Mary Rose and
the ship herself. Our role was to create a showcase for the Mary Rose and her
artefacts befitting their significance, so we designed a museum that would recreate
the experience of being on board the ship hundreds of years ago and created a
context gallery to highlight its precious contents. Coming from a marine
archaeological background, this project is a major personal achievement and I hope
visitors to the Mary Rose Museum are excited by the end result as I am.”
Alongside the obvious focus on the visitor experience, staff and volunteer needs
have been carefully considered. Administration and support spaces are accessible
throughout the museum and include offices, kitchen facilities, changing/ locker
rooms, and toilets and showers. Importantly, the breakout space opens out onto an
external terrace, giving museum staff and volunteers access to daylight and fresh air
away from the dark internal museum spaces.
Corporate events are accommodated in the large end gallery at castle deck level (the
Admiral’s Gallery), which has access to the external balcony overlooking the stern of
the Victory and the RN ships. One of the classrooms in the learning pavilion can be
opened up into the lobby to create a space for corporate events and weddings.