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The National Maritime Museum Ofer wing

12/12/2011

Szerelmey has completed a contract worth £1.5m as part of the National Maritime Museum’s £35m extension, Greenwich, London, which involved stone cladding, paving, the construction of two water features and internal terrazzo flooring.

The new Sammy Ofer Wing of the National Maritime Museum is located to the rear of the main museum and overlooks Greenwich Park. It now acts as a new main entrance to the entire museum. Its exhibitions will illustrate the importance of Britain’s sea faring connections and its maritime heritage. Greenwich is a Unesco World Heritage Site and work by world-famous architects including Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wrenand Nicholas Hawksmoor can be found in the area.  Therefore, the goal for the architects and Szerelmey was to convey contemporary architecture that was sensitive to the existing museum and the historic surroundings of the area.

The bulk of the new construction was kept below ground so the new wing becomes a combination of architecture and public landscape. The extension is made up of a long, narrow pavilion that is only 3m high – it provides the main entrance and runs along the edge of Greenwich Park. The roof of the extension has a roof terrace with three separate rectangular-shaped ‘lanterns’.

Two of them are essentially vast skylights for the entrance lobby below, but in the largest lantern a public brasserie has been created, with stunning views over Greenwich Park. Szerelmey applied natural Portland Stone cladding to the lower storey, the brasserie and the other two lanterns. On the lower storey, the Portland Stone cladding provides a rectangular-shaped frame, which surrounds the glazed panels that make up a large part of the lower building’s façade.