STONEHENGE MUSEUM
After a tortuous 21-year process Stonehenge, the stone circle that is one of the world’s most important neolithic artifacts, finally has the visitor centre it deserves. Denton Corker Marshall‘s design, situated 2.5 km (1.5 miles) to the west of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, has opened its doors and is preparing to deal with the site’s nearly 1 million annual visitors.
The new design features a museum, educational facilities, a cafe, shop and a ticket office. These spaces are brought together by a perforated oversailing roof supported on 211 narrow angled columns.
The new building forms the primary feature of a wider plan to improve the Stonehenge site, including covering the adjacent road which passes so close as to almost touch the stones, and removing the 1968 concrete facilities nearby. The whole plan is due to be completed next year, and will return the site to something resembling its original state, a philosophy that extends to the new building: it is situated out of sight from the stones, and designed with the principles of “reversibility” in mind – that is, it could easily be removed leaving almost no trace of its existence.
This has been achieved using a concrete raft, sat on top of a fill of soil – building up from the ground instead of digging foundations. This approach was further enabled by the lightweight construction and the maximization of outdoor space, with circulation areas left exposed.
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