Eric Parry’s Holburne Museum extension. Completed in 2011, in parallel with the restoration of the main building, which dates from 1796. The scheme took 10 years to progress through the design, planning and construction stages.
The result is a fairly impressive structure. The ceramic and glazed exterior is quite a challenging thing, particularly in the context of such as strong local character and it’s location: attached to a grade l listed building. The glazing does reflect the mature plane trees to the rear which are the start of Sydney Gardens, through which a canal and trainline pass!
The green and metallic ceramic vertical tiles work well and compliment the form of the older building and the contrast is significant. The whole scheme would have transformed the interaction of the museum with the gardens and the interior spaces are very well integrated with the 18th century building.
The ground floor cafe and outdoor seating area works well and I could see this being a very nice place to hang out in the summer – it was nice enough when I was there and I managed to avoid a pretty torrential rain storm while I was in side – to emerge with large puddles everywhere and torrents of water running down the hill to the University of Bath!
A 30 minute walk to the university campus and an interesting lecture. Lots of interesting new build projects there and overall a day of inspiring design.
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