NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PROGRESS
MARCH 2017
Below are some from the Natural History Museum site showing the scaffold ‘tunnel’ going up at the Museum. This is the framework required to lift, manipulate, and move the blue whale skull into position in a few weeks.
Though the main hall has had a sperm whale in it before, this was only around 15m long. In contrast, the blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, is about 30m long once assembled.
Unfortunately, due to the various extensions and alterations to the Museum over time, the skull can only come in via the front doors. And – much like a very large, very heavy, very valuable sofa – it’s a case of squeezing it in at strange angles.
COLLABORATION WITH KIM WILKIE MAKES NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM SHORTLIST
NOVEMBER 2013
Niall McLaughlin Architects and Kim Wilkie have been shortlisted in a competition to re-imagine the grounds of the Natural History Museum in London. The practice was approached by the landscape designer Kim Wilkie to collaborate on a scheme for the invited competition. The brief is to create an innovative exterior setting that matches the architectural excellence of Waterhouse’s iconic 19th century building.
The five other architect and landscape architect teams shortlisted for the competition are Bjarke Ingels Group with Martha Schwartz Partners, Grant Associates with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Land Use Consultants with Design Engine and Stanton Williams Architects with Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects.