Shetland Museum

EN-IT EN - On 2nd June 2007, the long awaited Shetland Museum and Archives will opened to the public. This new £11.6m building, designed by BDP, represents an important new cultural hub as well as a major new visitor attraction for these fascinating islands. The Shetland Museum and Archives will become the first port of call for all visitors to the islands, as well as a heritage hub for islanders themselves. It features: • A dynamic waterside setting on the historic Hay's Dock in the centre of Lerwick, Shetland's capital. • A striking timber-clad three-storey high Boat Hall housing five historic boats suspended up to 14 metres high. Tracing the history of the Shetland boat from its Viking roots through to the present day, the Boat Hall also contains two viewing platforms allowing visitors to see the boats from a variety of angles. • A remarkable collection of over 3,000 artifacts, and archives of written, photographic, oral and musical records. • A unique Public Art Project, for both inside and outside the building, including collaborations with local and international artists. • The Hay's Dock Café Restaurant, serving local produce, with panoramic views of the harbour The building, with its dynamic sail-shaped Boat Hall, was recently chosen as a best practice example by the Scottish Executive in its new strategy for architecture and is the centrepiece of a restoration of the historic Hay's Dock. The new 3,500 m² building, which utilises old boatsheds, has five times the previous Museum display space and three times the previous archive storage area. Facilities include the café restaurant, an Archives repository and search room, gift shop boat restoration sheds, an auditorium seating 120, a learning room and a temporary exhibition space and administration, curatorial and conservation spaces. Externally the building form is largely derived from traditional early Shetland buildings - Lodberries, whose gable ends rise from the sea - and is constructed of traditional materials of harled masonry walls, timber windows and slate pitched roofs. Contrasting with these roofs and gables - and providing an icon for the New Museum - is the sculptural form created by the four timber clad, inclined walls of the new Boat Hall, being conceived as four large polygonal shapes, separated by narrow vertical glazed strips, their colour and form echoing the sails of the Herring Drifters which were built in Hay's Dock a hundred years ago and wintered here during the boom years. The new Museum has allowed the return of many priceless artifacts from Shetland's Viking past which were on display in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The key funders of The Shetland Museum and Archives are the Shetland Charitable Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Shetland Amenity Trust is the Client BDP is lead consultant, architect, landscape architect, interior designer and acoustic consultant. Turner + Townsend is quantity surveyor Faber Maunsell is mechanical and electrical engineer Woolgar Hunter is structural engineer and planning supervisor GBDM is display designer. DITT of Lerwick is the main contractor IT - Il museo, i cui lavori di realizzazione sono terminati nel 2007, rappresenta oggi un nuovo, importante polo culturale per le isole Shetland, nonché una meta turistica tra le più visitate. La costruzione, estesa su 3500 metri quadri, vede quintuplicata l’ampiezza della precedente sede del Museo e triplicata quella del vecchi archivi. I servizi includono una sala per la consultazione di documenti ed articoli, un auditorium dotato di 120 posti a sedere, una zona destinata alle attività educative, uno spazio per le mostre temporanee e le aree dove sono ubicati gli uffici amministrativi e la direzione del museo, una nuovo caffè-ristorante e un bookshop. La facciata esterna dell’edificio richiama visivamente le cosiddette lodberries, costruzioni tradizionali delle Shetland, caratterizzate da muratura in mattoni, finestre in legno e tetti spioventi in ardesia. The museum represents an important new cultural hub as well as a major new visitor attraction and landmark for these fascinating islands. The new 3,500 m² building, which utilises old boatsheds, has five times the previous Museum display space and three times the previous archive storage area. Facilities include the café restaurant, an Archives repository and search room, gift shop boat restoration sheds, an auditorium seating 120, a learning room and a temporary exhibition space and administration, curatorial and conservation spaces. Externally the building form is largely derived from traditional early Shetland buildings - Lodberries, whose gable ends rise from the sea - and is constructed of traditional materials of harled masonry walls, timber windows and slate pitched roofs. Contrasting with these traditional forms, the building’ presence is punctuated by the iconic timber clad Boat Hall. Conceived as four large polygonal shapes, separated by narrow vertical glazed strips, their colour and form echo the sails of the Herring drifters which wintered in and around Hays Dock in the last century.