Architecture studio Carmody Groarke has designed a lower-level entrance and gallery space at a science museum in Manchester, UK.
Envisioned as the first part of the Science and Industry Museum's long-term renovation plan, Carmody Groarke revamped the institution's lowest floor adding a Special Exhibitions Gallery, foyer and additional visitor entrance.
Carmody Groarke created a lower-level entrance to the Science and Industry Museum
The entrance on the lower ground floor of the 19th century New Warehouse building connects the museum with the Lower Yard and creates a new route through the institution.
To draw attention to this entrance, which is located under a vaulted railway viaduct, and differentiate it from the surrounding industrial architecture the studio framed it with backlit fibre-glass panels. The entrance is framed by backlit fibre-glass panels
"The new entrance makes the route across the overall museum site more legible and attractive by rehabilitating spaces where visitors were previously not attracted to go," said studio co-founder Andy Groarke.
"The backlit fibre-glass panels create a strong counterpoint to the weighty and enduring Victorian infrastructure and architecture," he told Dezeen.
The fibre-glass panels continue in the foyer
Each of the full-height fibre-glass panels, which continue into the foyer area and wrap around a multipurpose events space, were designed to bring light into the dark basement areas.
They were hand-cast an...