Durham Cathedral – Durham Cathedral Museum

The works took place in medieval buildings within Durham’s World Heritage Site and in the context of an active cathedral church and major tourist attraction. Durham Cathedral is an iconic 11th/12th century cathedral which is Grade 1 listed. It is also the heart of Durham’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Open Treasure project refurbished and transformed a series of spaces, previously inaccessible to the public, within the former claustral buildings into new exhibition spaces for the medieval treasures of St Cuthbert.

The complex refurbishment project was delivered in three phases to allow for the relocation of essential facilities across the site.

Phase 1a of Open Treasure was carried out to relocate the Cathedral Shop out of it’s former location in the Great Kitchen so that the latter could be refurbished as part of Phase 1b.  This also required that the Vestry be relocated.

The shop is separate from an adjacent lobby by glazed screens which “float” clear of the historic fabric. Comfortable environmental conditions are maintained by supplying air at the opposite end of the shop, thus positively pressuring the space and allowing air to continuously leak into the lobby area.

The new shop has also been provided with a high quality lighting installation including LED uplighters set in the floor and downlighters located so as not to be visible other than when looking straight up. The lighting installation utilises DALI based controls.

Phase 1b involved the refurbishment of a series of major 12th century historic spaces to provide an introductory gallery in the Monk’s Dormitory, a new special exhibitions gallery formed by removing and replacing a modern insertion between historic buildings, new exhibition facilities for Cuthbert’s Treasures in the historic Great Kitchen and refurbishing the Refectory Library to make it suitable to house the medieval manuscripts which are stored in it.

The new facilities incorporated modern building engineering services carefully designed to minimise the impact on historic fabric and the aesthetic appeal of the spaces in which they are installed whilst meeting the stringent requirements of our Client. Modern lighting installations were designed to enable a variety of exhibits to be lit to their best advantage, whilst controlling exposure to light, heat and ultraviolet light and minimising the use of energy. Environmental control systems have been installed which make best use of the inherent qualities of the buildings in order to control temperature and humidity for the benefit of visitors, artefacts and the building itself whilst using as little energy as possible and minimising the impact on the building fabric.

Phase 1c included the formation of new porches within the Cathedral Church itself, which frame the delicate architecture of the north and south doors, to improve visitor access, use of the doors for liturgical processions and events, and the environmental conditions within the church.

The project elements which were intended to form new exhibition and library facilities were also tasked with delivering stringent new environmental controls within the challenging context of a 12th century historic building constructed from porous stone, with extremely limited plant space in a working cathedral.

Key goals of the project included buffering the internal environment of the Cathedral from external conditions, protecting the historic carved masonry around the door portals from external weather which would accelerate their deterioration, providing effective lighting to enable the carved stonework to be appreciated by visitors and enabling all of the other engineering services associated with accessibility, security, emergency lighting and fire detection to be sensitively provided without detracting from the appearance and atmosphere in these key locations.

TGA developed an innovative environmental control proposal which makes use of the large volume of relatively stable air within the nave of the cathedral to smoothly maintain the conditions within an inner lobby in which the carved masonry sits, avoiding the risk of fluctuations which might otherwise be caused by traditional approaches and minimising the need for plant.

Phases 1a and 1b of Open Treasure won the Conservation Award and the Project of the Year Award at the 2018 North East RIBA Awards before going on to win the 2018 National RIBA Award. Phase 1b also won a Civic Trust Conservation Award in 2019.