The Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is home to a wide collection of artefacts, from prehistoric fossils to Roman pottery, and one of the UK’s most important collections of 20th-century British art. We’ve designed a beautiful new structure in the heart of the town’s burgeoning cultural quarter, next to the Wyvern Theatre, to house these precious assets – a cradle to safeguard them for the future. The building will be a major public destination that inspires civic pride and anchors Swindon’s cultural and economic regeneration.
Our design references Swindon’s skyline with twin spires that reflect a sense of optimism. This form enables column-free spaces across the museum, with the facades providing a backdrop for lighting, films and other projections. The generous public realm around the building provides a new civic square and routes linking to the rest of the town centre to Old Town.
The venue will engage the public with event spaces, learning centres, and galleries flexible enough to host the museum’s unique permanent collection and visiting exhibitions alike. It’s designed to draw and excite both locals and visitors, inviting them to learn more about Swindon’s rich heritage.
With its world-class facilities and focus on creativity and inclusion, the new museum will be a community hub as well as a British cultural destination. Its distinctive design will make it an artefact itself, a beautiful object that symbolises Swindon’s past, present and future.
The building itself is important. As a stunning piece of architecture it will remind us that its contents – which include fossils and Roman remains, examples of Swindon’s industry and innovation, and art and artefacts that Swindon people have collected – are very significant indeed.
A centrepiece to Swindon's new cultural quarter, this new museum and art gallery will include a host of engaging event spaces and community facilities.
