a no-frills metal barn has been built to house the reserve collections of the London museum and its associates with 300,000 objects ranging from a 1960s nuclear missile to Stephen Hawking’s voice synthesiser dark troves of material in little-publicised locations They might hold 95% or more of an institution’s collections with some objects as fascinating and beautiful as those on view others acquired for long-forgotten reasons and refreshed permanent displays and refuge to artefacts with nowhere much else to go They are necessary backup to the workings of a museum They are the underwater part of the iceberg which will open next year within the former 2012 Olympics media centre in east London The ‘bluntly practical’ exterior of the Hawking Building, named after Stephen Hawking, the contents of whose office are among the objects stored inside. Photograph: Science Museum GroupThe Science Museum Group which includes significant museums in Manchester York and County Durham as well as the one in London on a former RAF airfield at Wroughton outside Swindon Wiltshire – a 545-acre site owned by the museum since 1979 More than 300,000 objects have been moved into the new structure’s 33,000 square metres of floorspace both from Blythe House and old hangars used for storage elsewhere on the airfield It is a feat as much of recording and removal as of building given that the last release sold out in 24 hours Visitors on a guided tour of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park. Photograph: Science Museum GroupAt the same time they wanted it to be “more than a typical museum store”, and they asked Sam Jacob Studio purveyors of enjoyably intelligent and robustly imaginative architecture to lift the visitor experience above the purely functional It did not design much by way of new building apart from a still-under-construction entrance pavilion to the whole ex-airfield site but its contribution was to devise ways of organising the material more than 180 miner’s lamps and very many typewriters There’s a 1960s Blue Steel nuclear missile and a graceful 1916 still-working electric car including his voice synthesiser and such ordinary items as a teabag squeezer acquired by the museum while the project was under way which is one reason why the building now carries the great physicist’s name The large items are arrayed in a high space as long and slightly less wide than a football pitch on a floor marked with a grid of white lines tagged with numbers and coloured shapes – a combination of “a car park and a [painting by] Sol LeWitt” Around this hall are two levels filled with 18 miles of shelving in long aisles repeating and receding towards infinity They carry anything from a syringe to a motorbike with less ceremony and more immediacy than in a museum Some of the Hawking Building’s 18 miles of shelving Photograph: Andrew Tunnard/Science Museum GroupThe whole is a world away from typical museum design and can photograph and film items for the benefit of research requests from distant places Architectural artistry exists mostly as paint on the floor and subtle choices of placement for example in an entrance sequence that look a bit cash-strapped when you could wish for a bit more joy in the built fabric but on the whole this is a project that has got its priorities right For details of how to visit the Science and Innovation Park, Wroughton, Swindon, click here Watch a video of large objects being moved into the Hawking Building.This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Wroughton Science Museum is opening its doors to the public for the first time today (Friday) with a new name The huge building at the Science and Innovation Park – formerly a storage facility for the 300,000 objects in the museum’s collection – has been renamed the Hawking Building after theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking Today’s opening follows a £65 million redevelopment programme While three hundred thousand exhibits is a lot to look at in a single visit highlights include a toy duck used by scientists to identify landing sites on a comet Sno-cat – the first vehicle to complete a motorised crossing of Antarctica and hundreds of items from Professor Stephen Hawking’s office Other attractions include a Spacelab 2 X-ray telescope carried into orbit by the US Space Shuttle Challenger and a revolutionary Leyland Titan double-decker bus explore shelving containing objects from Stephen Hawking’s office and even a NASA Flight Simulator chair used to train astronauts at the Johnson Space Center There are 300,000 objects in the museum’s collection at Wroughton school trips and researcher visits now enable unprecedented public access to the collection with visitors invited to walk among towering objects and glimpse behind the scenes of a working museum store The Science Museum said the facility’s new name had been chosen in recognition of the lasting impact of Professor Stephen Hawking’s scientific research and public engagement and his long-standing relationship with the Science Museum Group Hawking – who would later explain the probable origins of the universe to the general through his bestselling 1988 book A Brief History of Time to the general public – drew inspiration from regular visits to the Science Museum in London he lent his communication devices for display gave lectures and debated Nobel Prize laureates in the museum In 2021 the extraordinary contents of Hawking’s Cambridge University office were acquired for the nation by the Science Museum Group through the UK Government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme including his communication and mobility equipment have since been studied and cared for in the Hawking Building with staff and researchers uncovering the everyday and extraordinary stories within them son of physicist Stephen Hawking; Sir Ian Blatchford director of Science Museum Group; Sian Williams director and CEO of the Science Museum Group said: “I am thrilled to announce the Hawking Building as the name for this remarkable home for the world-famous objects in our care “Having been inspired at the Science Museum as a child Stephen became a great friend to the Science Museum Group and this is a fitting way to celebrate that life-long relationship and our acquisition of the extraordinary items from his office that will inspire others for generations to come “The first public tours of the Hawking Building mark a significant milestone in the transformation of how we research and share our internationally significant collection with the world “Thanks to generous funding and support from HM Treasury and DCMS more than 300,000 historic objects have moved to this state-of-the-art facility that sets new standards in environmentally sustainable collections care.” said: “The Science Museum Group brings the darkest depths of the ocean and the furthest reaches of space to the public’s finger tips inspiring visitors across its five museums There’s nothing as inspiring as when you see a child mesmerised by the appliance of science “I’m delighted that the Hawking Building has opened so that even more of the Science Museum Group’s marvellous collection can educate and entertain while offering the public a peek behind the curtain of how this great institution brings the world around us to life.” son of Professor Hawking – who died in 2018 aged 76 – said: “As a family we are delighted that the Science Museum has chosen to name this magnificent new facility the Hawking building “We are so grateful to the Science Museum Group for taking such good care of the Stephen Hawking collection and ensuring that his work and legacy as a scientist disability advocate and technology pioneer will be accessible to visitors to their museums nationwide.” Guided public tours take place until Friday, November 15, although tickets sold out in advance. Bookings are now being taken for the 2025 season, which begins in March, at https://www.scienceinnovationpark.org.uk/visit-us/public-guided-tours An aerial view of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park Latest: Science Museum appoints new director for Science and Innovation Park near Swindon  Update cookies preferences Site created by Jazzbones Creative We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. 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