How will our redeveloped Museum look? Exterior.
Exciting (and busy) times with our redevelopment project! We've now applied to Highland Council for planning permission and listed building consent for our new entrance/exhibition building which will really enhance the appearance and accessibility of the Museum – providing new facilities while helping to protect and interpret our Category B listed cottages and byre.
Courtesy of our wizard designers, Peter Drummond Architects and Mather & Co. exhibition design, we are delighted to give a more detailed preview of how our Museum will look following the redevelopment. Read on for details of the redeveloped Museum exterior - then in the next blog entry we'll take a look inside!
The biggest alteration to the site will be the replacing of our 1970s exterior displays to the rear with a new entrance/exhibition hall. This will create climate-controlled space to display more of our collection than ever before, as well as allowing for vital new visitor facilities including our first ever accessible toilets!
A feature we’re particularly proud of will be the organic roof of the new building, which will be finished in sedum to help soak up the Highland rain, promote biodiversity and serve as a modern complement to the historic pattern heather thatch of the Museum cottages. Photovoltaic panels will also be installed, giving the Museum a source of renewable energy and reducing our dependence on increasingly costly mains electricity.
The extension building is set to the rear of the cottages and community gallery byre and is designed to serve as a backdrop to the historic structures. To enhance this it will be finished in horizontal beds of Ballachulish slate – the natural colour and texture of Glencoe.
As part of the building works the cottages will be repaired, conserved and rethatched with traditional materials and finishes to present visitors with an authentic appearance of a traditional croft house. To provide a contrast the community gallery byre will be re-roofed with red corrugated iron, as had been in place when the Museum took over the site in the early 1970s. As well as providing an eye-catching splash of colour, this will allow us to illustrate how local building design has developed since the 1800s.
Another feature we’re keen to implement is reinstating something of the original setting to the front of the cottages – removing part of the pavement and replacing with much more appealing grass.
We can't wait to see it in the flesh! Well, stone and mortar at any rate,.
Work continues behind the scenes on exhibition design, business planning, collections management, coffee drinking etc etc etc.... There's also a lot of funding still to secure to reach our £1.4million project goal- a particular challenge in the current economic climate - and there's plenty of ways you can help out, including:
Raising money through shopping with Amazon - simply visit smile.amazon.co.uk/charity and pick Glencoe Folk Museum as the charity you wish to support.
Adopting one of our quirky collection items - visit glencoemuseum.com/adopt-an-object
And best of all - visit us at the Museum!
If you'd like to know more why not get in touch with David Rounce, Project Director - redevelopment@glencoemuseum.com