Belfast museum celebrates Titanic’s heritage
Titanic museum, Belfast. Photo: Christopher Heany
Source: Christopher Heaney£100 million building by Todd Architects and CivicArts opens this weekend
Todd Architects and Civic Arts has completed work on the Titanic Belfast museum, which opens to the public this weekend.
The £100 million, six-storey building, designed to resemble the hull of a ship, has nine galleries as well as space for temporary exhibits exploring the history of shipbuilding in Belfast, life on board the Titanic and its sinking in 1912.
Paul Crowe, managing director of Todd Architects, said: “Titanic Belfast has a complicated geometry, with a challenging build programme.
“Its stand-out exterior facade, which replicates four 90ft-high [27m] hulls, is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodized aluminium shards, of which two-thirds are unique in design. Inside, a series of glass escalators, each more than 20m long, stretch up from the central atrium.”
Other features include a 1,000-seat banqueting suite, education and community facilities and a basement car park. The building has been rated Breeam excellent.
Todd Architects worked with CivicArts, which acted as concept design architect and Torquay-based practice Kay Elliott, which worked on the grand staircase and other interior features.
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Readers' comments (5)
I've seen some ugly buildings, but this one is the worst.
Ugly, yes. But I would have expected worse in Belfast.
Is it supposed to look like an iceberg?
I actually quite like this building. OK, it's not as nice as the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena which is also featured in BD this week, but it could be a lot worse.
Let's hope it's been built to last for just the 6 months for which there will be any remaining interest in the "Titanic experience". This time next month everyone will have forgotten about it and this building, of itself, or what it is reputed to contain, offers no impelling reason to drop everything and hurry to Belfast.