William Tobias Appleton Holley: Summer 2012

2012 Design Project: The Edinburgh Jewel Box

The brief for this project was to design a museum to display an eclectic collection of Scottish themed objects. The building was located in the existing arched vaults on Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh. If you wish to see any more of the project, please email wtaholley@hotmail.com.

The design concept derived from the idea of encouraging the user to discover the museum exhibits in the existing arched vaults. From the beginning of the project, the existing vaults were a key element to the design process and utilising these spaces to exhibit the objects with the correct conditions was vital.

The conceptual exhibition images were key to determining the desired feeling inside the spaces in addition to lighting and materiality studies. Layering the desired spaces informed the design process and allowed me to explore different ways of exhibiting the objects. For example, the Scottish Colourist exhibition was designed to portray the feeling of a Georgian Edinburgh town house, where the artists used to live and work.

A further design concept that complemented the idea of discovery was for the building to act as a jewellery box. The elegant and decorative facade wraps around the curve of Jeffrey Street to conceal the exhibits inside. Once the user enters the building, they discover the objects in reverse in chronological order imitating the feeling of finding the older objects, the further they delve inside the jewellery box.

Environmental Survey and Building Integrated Renewable Energy systems implemented into the building:

An extension to the project was to look into the future and explore the possibility of what the building would be like in 2050. My vision was for the museum to be transformed into a copper acid leaching laboratory to purify copper and re use this material and protect the famous copper clad Edinburgh architecture.