STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway

Housed in a beautifully restored Grade II listed railway building in the heart of the former Swindon railway works, the STEAM museum tells the story of the men and women who built, operated and travelled on the Great Western Railway.
The Museum highlights the pioneering vision and engineering genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and how it led to the Great Western Railway network becoming regarded as the most advanced in the world.

The Project

The STEAM museum in Swindon has a very large atrium and it was felt that this wasn’t being utilised to its full.
Aspen were appointed to design and then manufacture a new reception desk. This was to be located centrally in the atrium and to create a focus for visitors as they entered. It would draw them across the atrium to buy tickets and guides, before entering the museum.
Prior to this, tickets had been sold from the shop counter located on the opposite side of the atrium, which was away from the entrance to the museum’s exhibits.

The Solution

A large ‘U’ shaped counter was designed by Aspen and rendered in 3D graphics for both museum and Council managers to envisage the final result. After a few design tweaks to incorporate adaptations for aesthetics and also disabled access on both sides of the counter, a design was agreed to and production started.
The 6.5m by 3.5m reception counter was manufactured in Aspen’s Swindon workshop in just one week. it utilised colour matched laminates to the STEAM museum’s corporate colours. The graphics on the front of the counter incorporate a map of the original railway works in Swindon and a metal arch, also fabricated in Swindon in the style of an historic railway station canopy.

The Result

The counter was installed in just one day, but required the museum’s electrician to add wiring to the desk before it could be utilised.
The counter has been so well received that Aspen have been asked back in order to design and manufacture a replacement counter for the museum’s shop. This new counter will be in the same style as the new reception desk.

 

“Once we appointed Aspen we knew we had chosen wisely, the insight and enthusiasm for our project was there from the start. We were impressed with how the design and construction progressed, especially that construction on site took only one day.”
Ian Surtees Leadership Manager, Income Generation

The 2nd Phase

Aspen went back and fitted the shop counter for the STEAM Museum shop.