MET Studio tells the story of Duxford airfield

IWM Duxford is a former WW1 and WW2 airfield site in Cambridge already showing several permanent exhibitions.

The consultancy won a creative pitch in October, according to MET Studio managing director Lloyd Hicks, who says the new exhibition ‘will bring to life the history of Duxford.’

MET Studio has been engaged to resurrect the 1930s Watch Office which stands opposite the Control Tower. 

From the Watch Office, a duty pilot would record the activities of landing and departing aircraft. MET Studios will re-create it to look as it did in the 1930s,  ‘with a pipe, as the duty officer might have left it – Marie Celeste style – and a ringing phone so you can listen in,’ says Hicks.

The stories of the men and women who lived and worked at Duxford will be told, creating ‘a vivid picture of life’ through audio recordings, film, interactive models, trails and artifacts, he says.

‘Boxed memories’ arranged in a timeline ‘will help lead people into the story,’ says Hicks.

An accessible integrated design approach has been taken so that all visitors can experience the ‘tactile and responsive’ features, which include a vibrating model of the site to help the visually impaired picture it.

Elsewhere in the exhibition ‘zonal smells’ of cooking for the kitchen, diesel for the hangers, and grass for the runway, are part of the integrated language of the design says Hicks.

‘There’s so much on the site – a tank museum and a US Airforce museum – and people only visit half of it, but no one’s ever been able to tell the story of Duxford itself,’ says Hicks.