Architects:Wright & Wright Architects

Area:2182m²

Year:2021

Photographs:Hufton+Crow,Helene Binet

structural Engineer:Alan Baxter Ltd

Quantity Surveyor Consultant:Gardiner & Theobald

Landscape Architect:Dominic Cole Landscape Architects Ltd

Main Contractor:Quinn London LTD

Client:Museum of the Home

Project Manager:Gardiner & Theobald LLP

Principal Design Advisor:The Stroma Group Ltd

Exhibition Designer:ZMMA Ltd

Exhibition Contractor:Elmwood Projects

Wayfinding Consultant:Dn&Co

Furniture Procurement:Collaborate Furniture

Heritage Consultants:Alan Baxter Ltd

Building Services Engineer:Max Fordham

Lighting Engineer:Max Fordham

Acoustics Engineer:Max Fordham

Fire Engineers:Menzies Partners Ltd

City:London

Country:United Kingdom

Text description provided by the architects. The project revitalises an assemblage of 300-year old almshouses and gardens, consolidating the historic building with contemporary elements to create a sustainable and engaging public space. Wright & Wright’s remodelling creates 80% more exhibition space, 50% more public space and remedies the building’s deterioration, preserving a valuable local and national heritage asset for decades to come. It also introduces a new entrance directly opposite Hoxton Station, adds two new garden pavilions together with a street-facing cafe, and improves public access, with no increase in the building’s overall energy requirements.

Within the main almshouse, Wright & Wright excavated and re-established the lower ground floor to form the new Home Galleries and reinstated the first floors to create a spacious new Collections Library and Study Room. The Museum is structured around a redesigned reception space, while a reconfigured circulation route, with flexible entry and exit points, enables visitors to navigate and shape their own Museum experience.

Flanking the gardens are two new pavilions providing valuable community space for the Museum’s programme of education and other activities. The green roof planted on one of the pavilions enhances biodiversity and acknowledges the Museum’s gardens as being one of the few public green spaces in the surrounding area.

In making the Museum’s interiors more accessible, Wright & Wright has also made its street presence more visible and welcoming, eroding the barrier between the museum and public realm. A new entrance opposite Hoxton Station entices visitors through a series of sculptural ramps and steps framed by plants, creating an enclave for people to meet and sit. Similarly, the adjacent and previously redundant Victorian-era public house has been transformed into a cafe, providing an additional entry point to the Museum.

Wright & Wright’s architectural synthesis of new and old reflects a reframed curatorial approach intended to make the Museum more appealing to a wider audience by addressing contemporary domestic issues such as homelessness and fluctuating family structures. It actualises the Museum’s refreshed identity which aims to present a more nuanced understanding of the idea of home and its resonance in society.

Project gallery

Project location

Address:Museum of the Home, Geffrye Almshouses, 136 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8EA, United Kingdom