Flythrough of the Mary Rose Museum in 2012
As Prince Harry marked the next milestone in the history of the Mary Rose by laying the foundation stone for the new museum on Friday (18th March, 2011), the Mary Rose Trust was also revealing a preview flythrough of how the inside of the building at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will look when it opens to public in Autumn 2012.
This clip is a shortened version of a flythrough being sponsored by construction group Warings and produced by ID Group with input from internal architects Pringle Brandon and exhibition designers Land Design Studio. It should whet the appetite for the full length version that will be available in the coming weeks. The video gives insights into how the Mary Rose will be displayed and how the personal stories of the crew will be highlighted as the collection is reunited with the ship for the first time since her raising in 1982.
The flythrough also shows the view of the hull through windows into the conservation ‘hot box’. Inside this space, the tubes supplying the air to dry the ship will be seen until 2016 when at last the 30 year conservation programme will be complete and the hull will be fully revealed once more.
The Mary Rose Trust is also highlighting the behind the scenes process of putting the displays together through a series of video blogs. In the first update Nick Butterley, Exhibitions Coordinator describes how the first area, on the ground floor, will be one of six galleries showing items by type and themes. The Context Gallery, on all three levels, will then position exhibits opposite the areas of the ship where they would originally have been found.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuubZnpnQMk)
Head of Interpretation at the Mary Rose Trust, Christopher Dobbs also reveals a mock-up display cabinet for the carpenter, complete with personal possessions. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogYEcjDCSdg)
2012 will mark thirty years since the entire nation was glued to televisions watching the wreck of the Tudor warship break the surface of the Solent, and will be when the Mary Rose Trust will open a new museum, bringing the hull and many of the 19,000 artefacts that were raised with her together once again.
The building has been designed by Wilkinson Eyre, a prolific firm but probably best known for the Millennium Bridge crossing the Tyne between Gateshead and Newcastle. For the Mary Rose, they have designed an elliptical ‘jewel box’, placing the hull at the centre with galleries running the length of the ship, each at a level corresponding to a deck levels on the ship. Artefacts will be set out in these galleries, designed by the architect and maritime archaeologist Chris Brandon, so that the visitor can see what the decks would have looked like moments before the ship sank.
Warings, a member of the international construction and services group Bouygues, is delivering the construction phase of the £35 million project for the Mary Rose Trust.
Philippe Jouy, Warings Managing Director, commented “The museum will represent the very best in 21st century architecture and construction, providing a beautiful and secure environment for the finest collection of 16th century artefacts in the world.”
The existing Mary Rose Museum remains open during construction and continues to offer an amazing visitor experience with more than 1,000 of the finest conserved artefacts recovered from the site.
To help secure the future of The Mary Rose visit www.maryrose500.org
