Buttress Architects | The Higgins

At the Higgins, Buttress combined three buildings (one listed) and two collections to create a new, single museum. Key to the success of the project was not only the physical redevelopment of the buildings and spaces, but the creation of a new interpretation strategy developed from close collaboration between exhibition designer and architect.
The existing Bedford Museum building and adjacent Cecil Higgins Art Gallery. Buildings were refurbished and joined, with access and routes redesigned. A new entrance foyer and retail space provides level access to the newly combined museum and created a new, more visible point of entry. Internal circulation was also redesigned and a new lift was inserted, giving level access between the two buildings.

Gallery spaces were refurbished to offer flexibility and improved accessibility, and appropriate environmental controls and security measures to national standards were incorporated to enable visiting collections to be displayed.

In addition to the new gallery spaces, learning and activity rooms, a 100-cover café, new toilets and visitor cloakroom were introduced, as well as new environmentally controlled archival storage.
The Higgins includes listed buildings in a conservation area and sits within the boundary of a scheduled ancient monument. The museum houses both local history collections relevant to its thriving local community as well as important art and domestic furniture collections that attract visitors and expert audiences nationally.
Working together with the exhibition designers and the museum board, we created a new masterplan. From the outset the practice identified gallery spaces with exhibition ideas, and ensured that the key themes had a sensible route to maximise the visitor experience; that key collections had the most appropriate spaces for their environmental control, access and security; and that other concerns such as flexibility, maintenance and commercial potential were taken into consideration.

The architectural approach adopted allowed much of the new Higgins to act as a backdrop to the exhibition design and interpretation within. It is very much the case of less is more, creating clean and fuss free galleries that function well, and flow one to the other with ease. Attention has been drawn to the new build entrance elements that are distinct and bold against the historic brick brewery and purposefully identify the entrance which was once hard to find.