New complex links people to water at World Heritage Site

Lakeland Arts has unveiled Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories ahead of its public opening tomorrow, 23rd March. Situated within the Lake District National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the £20m museum was designed by Carmody Groarke and principally funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The new facility tells the story of 200-years of all aspects of boating in the Lake District through an internationally significant collection. Vessels include SL Dolly, thought to be the oldest mechanically powered boat in the world.

Andy Groarke, director of Carmody Groarke, stated:  ‘Working with Lakeland Arts and museum stakeholders, we created a museum whose design would make a connection between people, boats and water, and which would also reinterpret the site’s industrial and picturesque heritage.’

Located on the site of the Windermere Steamboat Museum, The Jetty is one of the first contemporary buildings to be constructed on the lakeside in over 50 years. A cluster of several buildings are grouped around a central Boathouse, where the exhibits can be experienced in their natural context – on the water. The new jetties enable visitors to dock from the regular cruise boats and sail on Osprey, one of the museum’s fully-restored Edwardian steam launches. Visitors will also be able to access a conservation workshop and watch boat builders working to restore vessels that would otherwise be lost to history.

The sculptural forms of the buildings reference traditional Lake District architecture through the use of overhanging roof canopies, which extend the museum’s environment from inside to outside. The exteriors are covered with oxidised copper, intended to weather over time in order to blend the appearance of the museum into the natural environment.

Rhian Harris, Chief Executive of Lakeland Arts said: “Our Design Team have created an extraordinary museum which connects visitors with the collection, to the lake and with the wider Lake District landscape, telling the incredible stories of those to whom Windermere has been so important.”

Lucy Nordberg
TenderStream Head of Research

This competition was first published by TenderStream on 28.06.2011 here

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