The Natural History Museum - BB7

The Natural History Museum

Sectors

Services

Team

Steve Michael, Director – London and South East.

Client

The Natural History Museum

Project overview

The Natural History Museum in London is one of the most prominent and iconic museums in the world. It is located on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, and is renowned for its vast collection of specimens relating to natural history, geology, and biology.

The Museum is a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre.  As a global centre of scientific research on the natural world, but also as a world renowned museum. It’s growing collection, serves us today and has priceless potential for future generations.

Life safety for visitors is a primary concern, however property protection, mission continuity considerations are of paramount importance. Hence BB7’s appointment.

A building of architectural and historic significance.

The museum’s building is an impressive example of Romanesque architecture. It features intricate terracotta sculptures of plants and animals, as well as a distinctive central hall known as the Hintze Hall (formerly the Central Hall), which houses the museum’s famous Diplodocus skeleton.

Romanesque architecture, is characterized by its grand scale, intricate detailing, and use of terracotta sculptures. The museum’s building was designed by British architect Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1881.

Fire safety design and engineering

The Natural History Museum its facilities and buildings are constantly under renovation, with multiple ongoing projects, and a pipeline of future plans for alterations to the buildings or exhibits.  With this in mind the overarching fire strategy must be a ‘living document’ that evolves with these changes.

There are numerous design teams and consultants that design individual aspects and yet the responsible persons and duty holders at the museum require a team of experts client side to ensure consistency with the overarching strategy.

Expertly engineering safety for efficient and effective management when in use.

BB7 also helped to draft policy, strategy and procedure at the museum.  We developed suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments for the site, and spent time drafting their fire risk management system documentation.

This enabled the Museum to become the first in the world to gain UKAS accredited third party certification of their fire risk management system via TPCB, MMRA.

 

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