Sea City Museum
Southampton

Southampton City Council’s Sea City Museum Project shortlisted Gareth Hoskins Architects in 2009 to develop proposals for conversion of the Listed Magistrates’ Courts into a nationally important visitor attraction showcasing the city’s heritage and highlighting Southampton’s Titanic Story. The brief included 3,105sqm at a total of £15 million in two phases with significant demolition (included listed interiors), façade retention and a two phase development plan.

Hoskins’ team radically revised this approach by considering both phases together holistically, thus creating a more refined visitor experience and one that responded to the wider city – in particular to the proposed cultural quarter. The scheme aimed to provide an improved interpretive sequence, binding together the Titanic Story and the second phase Sea City. Key to this was a remodelling of the first floor existing entrance to allow ground level, centrally located access leading to a dramatic triple height glazed space running the whole length of the Museum, and culminating in a spectacular “shop window” to the city.