The museum's transformation will include a focus on improving accessibility and thermal performance.
London practice Feilden Fowles has submitted its plan for the £10m transformation of the Horniman Museum and Gardens.
Working with conservationist Fiona Raley Architecture and landscape architect J&L Gibbons, Feilden Fowles was selected for the job in May last year.
Its plans for the Grade II-listed museum, which was named Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022, seek to “reinvigorate and re-interpret” the Arts and Crafts style building and the surrounding gardens.
The Nature + Love project will create new visitor attractions in previously underused areas of the estate, including a nature explorers’ action zone in the south-east corner of the museum, an adventure zone in the northern corner of the gardens and a sustainable gardening zone in the eastern corner.
The plans also include an upgrade to the Natural History Gallery building, which dates from 1901, to improve accessibility and thermal performance, aimed at “future-proofing the gallery environment for decades to come”, Architects’ Journal reported.
“These plans brilliantly enact our ambition to celebrate and foster a love of nature, both inside the museum and outside in our gardens,” said Nick Merriman, Chief Executive and Content Director of the museum.
“It will be wonderful to give visitors even more to love and to use the new spaces to engage and encourage a wider range of people to care for and protect the world we all share”, he added.
The museum has already received money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to cover the cost of the concept designs. The outcome of a stage two funding application submitted to NLHF in February is expected this summer.
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