On the 12th September, Alastair Browning will be leading a virtual tour of Saltmarsh House as part of the AIA UK Building Tour Series 2024. Saltmarsh House was a winner in the AIAUK Small Projects Category.
Conceived as a delicate steel frame that floats above a meadow of wild grasses, the pavilion houses a long dining hall framed by three smaller spaces: a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom.
Below are some from the Natural History Museum site showing the scaffold ‘tunnel’ going up at the Museum. This is the framework required to lift, manipulate, and move the blue whale skull into position in a few weeks.
Though the main hall has had a sperm whale in it before, this was only around 15m long. In contrast, the blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, is about 30m long once assembled.
Unfortunately, due to the various extensions and alterations to the Museum over time, the skull can only come in via the front doors. And – much like a very large, very heavy, very valuable sofa – it’s a case of squeezing it in at strange angles.