Holmes Wood wins major graphics commission for the Science Museum

The permanent Medicine Galleries will cost £24 million and are being designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects to host objects from The Welcome Collection at the Science Museum.

Science Museum Medicine Galleries exhibits

Holmes Wood has won a £156,000 contract to create the graphics for the Wellcome Collection’s new permanent Medicine Galleries at the Science Museum.

The new 3000m2 galleries are designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, and will house more than 2,000 objects from the collections of Henry Wellcome and the Science Museum, almost doubling the size of the existing Medicine Galleries.

Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Science Museum Medicine Galleries render, 2014
Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Science Museum Medicine Galleries render, 2014

Holmes Wood previously worked on the graphics and wayfinding for the revamped interiors of The Welcome Collection in London, which displays the pieces Henry Wellcome collected alongside other curiosities that explore the connections between medicine, life and art. The architect on the project, which was unveiled last year, was also Wilkinson Eyre.

The Science Museum says: “The new galleries will use well considered design, intelligent interactive displays and engaging participative experiences to reveal personal stories about how our lives have been transformed by changes in medicine and health over the last 400 years.” According to Science Museum masterplan director Karen Livingstone, the design of the space will be “elegant and contemporary.”

The £24 million Science Museum project is scheduled to open in 2019, and in the meantime the gallery is hosting a smaller temporary exhibition of Henry Wellcome’s pieces, Journeys Through Medicine, which the museum says “provides a taster of what is to come in our new Medicine Galleries.” 

Lead curator of the Medicine Galleries, Dr Emily Scott-Dearing, says, “Our medicine collection documents moments of great medical insight and innovation, major public health challenges and moving patient experiences from the past.”

“Ours is a living, growing collection and alongside historic objects the new galleries will showcase our latest acquisitions from the leading edge of clinical medicine and biomedical research.”  

The new Medicine Galleries form part of the Science Museum’s wider longterm Masterplan, which aims to improve the accessibility, quality and scale of its interactive displays.

This October the Science Museum is due to open its new interactive gallery, Wonderlab, designed by Muf Architecture/Art and features a giant orrery and a friction slide.

Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Science Museum Medicine Galleries render, 2014
Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Science Museum Medicine Galleries render, 2014
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