Preparing for the next stage of the life of the Mary Rose
Designs for an environment to enable the Mary Rose to be housed in a new museum have be prepared by consulting engineers Gifford.
Multi-disciplinary consulting engineer Gifford has been appointed as part of the design team for a new museum to house the hull of the Mary Rose. The commission follows earlier engineering work undertaken by the practice relating to preserving the hull of Henry VIII’s flagship. This ship is currently viewed by looking through windows into the building that has housed it since it was salvaged in 1982. The hull is currently undergoing the final phase of the conservation process in which it is constantly sprayed with a preservative solution and kept at the correct temperature to prevent its timbers decaying. When this process is complete, the new museum will be built, allowing visitors to view the hull in its preserved condition. Recognising the importance of the environmental conditions in the new ship hall, the Mary Rose Trust commissioned Gifford to study how to achieve the optimum conditions for restoring and presenting the hull, while allowing visitors to view it in comfort. Andrew Pettifer, a director of Gifford, explains, ‘We carried out quite complex computational fluid dynamics to model the air flows and temperatures around the hull, the results of which have been used to derive the key design criteria for the new museum building. ‘This project involves the engineering of a built environment to meet the unique requirements of the hull. The Mary Rose has to be maintained at the right level of temperature and humidity, ideally being presented in such a way that allows visitors to walk around the hull. So, in terms of museum design, regard for control of the internal environment is of primary concern and a key driver of the architectural design.’ The new museum will be built around the hull in its existing location in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard and will reunite the hull with the many historical artefacts around it. The £20 million project will be the subject of a Heritage Lottery Fund bid, and, if successful, is due to be completed in 2011. Architects are Wilkinson Eyre and Pringle Brandon.
