The Science Museum announced its master plan for the future. Museum of the Future, as this vision has been named, was unveiled at a press conference to launch Science Museum’s 100th birthday celebrations.
Expected to be completed in 2015, Museum of the Future is an architectural vision for the Science Museum that includes important new and updated galleries. During the Centenary year, which begins on 26 June 2009, visitors to the Science Museum will be able to see a multimedia display of the Museum of the Future master plan.
Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the Science Museum, said:
“Museum of the Future, as a vision of the Science Museum, is incredibly exciting. As the Science Museum reaches 100 years we aim to celebrate the achievement of this great institution, whilst maintaining our focus on the future: the future of the Science Museum, and the future of Great Britain and the world. Museum of the Future places these three concerns equally at its core. When Museum of the Future becomes a reality the Science Museum will be closer than ever to achieving its aim of being the best place in the world to enjoy science, an attractive destination for visitors from across the UK and abroad. As Britain increases investment in ‘high tech’ industries the importance of the Science Museum will grow as a place to spark the curiosity and creativity of the scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs of the future. And as the world changes ever faster, the Science Museum will be relied upon more than ever to tell the captivating narratives of past, present and future that our collections embody."
Key elements of Museum of the Future:
• The Beacon: a new structure of glass and light on the facade of the Science Museum that will be visible along the relaunched Exhibition Road. The Beacon will present an exciting new image of the Science Museum as a dynamic and engaging place to visit, bursting with energy and ideas.
• Facade: multiple entrances will improve access to the Science Museum while media walls will provide colour, movement and messages that will attract, intrigue and draw people in.
• SkySpace: a stunning, cavernous rooftop space that will create a stage on which some of the most important exhibits will be brought to life through innovative interpretation. SkySpace will showcase the theme of cosmology and contain a new destination cafe with dramatic views into the Museum.
• New galleries: Complementing the established Flight and Making the Modern World galleries, two new permanent galleries will be added to showcase some of the most important objects in the very heart of the Museum – Making Modern Communication and Making Modern Science.
• Lifts: Three new sets of lifts will offer greater access and vertical connections between galleries, ensuring the utmost flexibility for all visitors.
The Science Museum has worked with Wilkinson Eyre to conceive and visualise Museum of the Future. Wilkinson Eyre is a twice Stirling Award winning architectural practice.
CGIs and an animated fly through are available on request.
For further information, to arrange interviews or for use of images, please contact Andrew Marcus, Science Museum Press Office, 020 7942 4357 / andrew.marcus@sciencemuseum.org.uk.
About Science Museum
From June 2009 the Science Museum is celebrating its hundredth birthday and a century of science with a year-long centenary programme to take the renowned institution into the future. For 100 years the Science Museum has been world-renowned for its historic collection, remarkable galleries and inspirational exhibitions. With around 15, 000 objects on public display, the Science Museum’s collections form an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical change from the past few centuries. Aiming to be the best place in the world for people to enjoy science, the Science Museum makes sense of the science that shapes our lives, sparking curiosity, releasing creativity and changing the future by engaging people of all generations and backgrounds in science engineering, medicine, technology, design and enterprise. In 2008/09 the Science Museum was proud to have been awarded the Gold Award for Visitor Attraction of the Year by Visit London and a Silver Award for Large Visitor Attraction of the Year by Enjoy England.
See also:
Adventure Into 2050 The Science of Survival, The New Eco-Experience at The Science Museum
