The National Museum of Science and Industry

Over the years SVM have undertaken a number of projects directly with the Science Museum.

Initially SVM was appointed to undertake the mechanical and electrical building services for the Welcome Wing. The exhibition design value was approximately £3m with completion in summer 2000.

SVM's involvement included the infrastructure to support new exhibitions covering ventilation, power and data systems. Unusually the services in some areas will be more visual and form part of the actual exhibition.

The project won the Greater London region Construction Achievement award as one of the UK's best lottery-funded millennium projects. The main criteria were architectural excellence, high-quality construction and an outstanding performance by the whole team including SVM.

The Welcome Wing was conceived to extend the museum's gallery space by 30 percent.

Galleries addressing biotechnology, information technology and future science were suspended across the four-storey space beneath the curved underbelly of an IMAX cinema. The galleries are open ended to allow dramatic views of a luminous blue wall forming the end of the new wing.

The museum hopes the extension will boost visitor numbers by 300,000 to 1.8 million. The galleries created for this project included:

• Making the Modern World Digital Gallery
• Pattern Gallery Imagining the Future Gallery
• News & Views
• Biomedical Gallery

Since this major redevelopment of the Science Museum, SVM have been involved in assisting the Museum with other minor projects such as the recent incredibly successful Alien Exhibit and more recently the Science of Spying exhibit.  Our role has also involved travelling with the exhibit to assist in its re-establishment elsewhere including Indianapolis, USA.