Building on our work with IWM in Lambeth, and also with Architype architects and Nick Grant of Environmental Solutions, we are refurbishing several listed buildings in this historic aerodrome museum and conservation site in Cambridgeshire, UK.

We are adapting and improving eight buildings which were built during war-time for highly specialised needs. Their new purpose is to store and curate the museum’s irreplaceable catalogue. These objects have multifarious requirements for storage and handling, which must be met without compromising on ease of access, staff wellbeing, respecting the building heritage and finally energy efficiency. This work is completed to a tight programme, and budget.

The failure of Archive storage to meet tight control parameters will cause damage to the contents. More often than not, this is caused not by under design of MEP equipment, but by over specification. The approach is to analyse the dynamic interaction of the objects, their packaging and the containing building. We can rely on the latent thermal and moisture therein to buffer the varying conditions.

In this way the servicing can be minimised to reduce risk of out-of-range malfunction, and the collection is preserved.