National Museum of the Royal Navy

Sensitively enriching a building accessible to all

The Project

Storehouse 10 at the historic naval dockyard in Portsmouth was constructed in the mid-eighteenth century, during an upsurge in naval building prompted by events such as the Seven Years War. It was originally used to store everyday supplies for working ships plus some naval items.

During the Second World War, Storehouse 10 was hit by an incendiary bomb, which destroyed the clock tower and most of the roof and upper floors. More extensive damage was prevented due to a strenuous firefighting effort to save the radar sets within, which were to be some of the first installed in Royal Navy ships.

Restoration of Storehouse 10 was gradual and was eventually completed in 1992. It has now been converted to form part of the National Museum for the Royal Navy complex. 


Building Control

Oculus were pleased to have provided the building control services for recent works providing a glazed link to Storehouse 11 and expanding ground floor exhibition space. The project aimed to enrich the visitor experience of the history of the Royal Navy and our maritime past, enhancing the existing building without compromising the historic fabric or setting. The architects, Purcell, retained all the important features of this large, robust listed structure which now comfortably accommodates a superb range of exhibits, displays and interactive experiences. Oculus worked closely with Purcell and Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service to agree solutions to challenging fire safety issues. Modern fire safety features were discretely installed without impacting on the appearance of the historic interior.  Access was also improved to ensure the experience could be enjoyed universally by all visitors.


CASE STUDY
Airbus - AWIC

The new £40m Aircraft Wing Integration Centre is arranged to maximise opportunities for departments to share spaces, equipment and ideas and will provide an innovative, highly flexible and easily adaptable physical test environment that forms a proving ground for the future technologies. This includes Airbus’ Wings of tomorrow programme, part of which focuses on exploring how wings can be more efficient, lighter and easier to make and assemble, looking at the best materials to use, assembly techniques and new technologies in aerodynamics and wing architecture. Covering 9,050m2 the scheme comprises hangar facilities including a 'Strong Floor' and relocatable ‘Strong Wall’, a high capacity hydraulic system to power multiple test rigs, three overhead cranes, laboratories, testing control rooms and open plan offices. As this facility is to be used to develop new technologies it was clearly important to build in flexibility for future uses. The delivery team was involved through this period and translated the design development into physical form with the same mind-set.

The ‘Strong Floor’ itself is 40 metres long by 18 metres wide and is housed within a building over 25 metres tall to allow the testing of full size wings from the largest Airbus aircraft including long term fatigue testing. A total of 1,440 cubic metres of concrete was used for the floor which took some 23 hours to cast to a total depth of two metres. The steel reinforcement amounted to a total of approximately 280 tonnes of rebar, estimated to be around 54 km laid end-to-end.

The 'Strong Wall' is 14 metres long, 10 metres high, 4.5 metres deep and has a total weight of 220 tonnes. It is made up of four modules and can be configured in two separate two module walls or a single four module wall. The mounting surfaces are machined to a close tolerance and when erected on the strong floor all points on the flange faces are within +/-1mm of a flat vertical plane. The structure is designed to cope with billions of load cycles so resistance to fatigue is the determining factor as well as its immense strength.

Read More

CASE STUDY
University of Hertfordshire

  • Refurbishment and alterations of the Hutton Building and Hutton Hall, including multi-storey new-build Hutton-Hub student zone.
  • Refurbishment and extension of Prince Edward Hall.

To the design of Vincent and Gorbing and construction by Contractor Morgan Sindall in association with Stride Treglown as executive architects , the works included an extensive refurbishment of Prince Edward Hall to form a new Learning Zone and Refreshment Space. The end result is a stylish timber lined informal study and meeting area for students adjacent to a new café and seating area. Externally the building has been granite clad.

Read More

CASE STUDY
Middleport Pottery

Middleport Pottery, the UK’s last working Victorian pottery was originally constructed in 1888 for Burgess & Leigh, a local ceramics company, where beautiful Burleigh pottery was produced using extremely rare skills.

In 2011, United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust (UKHBPT) embarked on a long journey to save the site from closure and to protect the complex that houses historic machinery, archives and collections of the past. The traditional industrial factory and its original function have been conserved, repaired and regenerated for community benefit. The areas of museum demonstrate the skilful process being undertaken in a traditional manner. 

Read More