|
|
The Explore
Building
Before
construction began, archeologists surveyed our site and found traces of a dock wall
believed to be several centuries old, foundations of Victorian factory buildings and
cobbled street paving. We were able to record these findings before covering them for digs
in the next millennium!
The dock wall is believed to have kept spring water in, as well as dock water out, which
is why land around the dock is 1 metre higher than in the dock itself.
The Explore building
incorporates an existing heritage building into its innovative design
is itself an exhibit. It was designed by Wilkinson Eyre
architects who took the Grade I I listed Great Western Railway goods
shed and fused old with new to create a magnificent new exhibition
space.
|
|
The
old goods shed was built by Great western railway in 1903 and
is one of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings in the
UK. It has the French Hennebique style construction which
supports the elegant wide arches that once spanned the railway
tracks. Small cross sections have deliberately been exposed in
the stairwells to show the structure of the reinforced
concrete using just four metal bars.
The architects added a 9 meter high and 90
meter long glass wall along the north side of the original
building and a 15-meter diameter stainless steel
planetarium sphere to the south
side, which houses our dazzling new world of sensory
experiences.
|
|
View of
north-west corner of the Explore building
under construction, showing the glass wall
|
|
|
|
|
An interesting feature of the explore building is the
Eutectic tank, designed to act as an environmentally-friendly
buffer to keep temperatures even within the building.
The tank
consists of a ten meter transparent tower full of balls
containing special eutectic salts.
As the temperature in the
building rises - either because of visitor numbers or because
it is hot outside - the crystals inside the balls begin to
melt, taking in heat as they do so and cooling the building.
As the building cools, the crystals turn solid again and give
out heat.
|
Eutectic tank
|
Time Lapse Videos
Some time-lapse videos showing a day of activity
At-Bristol -
17.01.00 The planetarium shell
- under construction (Quicktime, 1.4 MB)
27.03.99 The day the crane came
down (Quicktime, 3 MB)
22.07.98 Early on (Quicktime
5.3 MB)
22.07.98 Early on (Mpeg
2.5 MB)
|
