My college thesis project explored the notion of routine and mundanity being broken by and unexpected or extraordinary intervention. An unexpected occurrence, be it a sudden shift in scale, a surprising view or an unorthodox detail, can heighten an observer’s experience of a space, and even cause them to reevaluate something they think they know well.

To test this I chose the entirely practical task of providing additional exhibition, administration and storage space for Dublin’s Museum of Natural History. This amazing building, situated adjacent to Ireland’s houses of parliament, has remained virtually unaltered since it’s completion in 1848, bar one important intervention which moved the public entrance from the western end to the east, completely altering the reading of the spaces .

My proposal provided a new public square which opened a route through the formerly closed urban block and a series of new exhibition spaces set at a right angle to the existing museum which reinstated it’s original western entrance and orientation.