Case Study: National History Museum Conservation Lab

Storage Solutions for Conservation Materials

The work of Museum conservation can seem like a never-ending task, with so many objects requiring careful and intricate work, time is always at a premium.

Museums recognise this and an area where time and cost can be reducing is having sufficient conservation grade materials to hand, that you can call upon at a moment’s notice.

Although by no means heavy, the sheer stock size of the materials requires careful consideration, to allow us to devise the correct storage scheme, which will ensure that the materials are in prime condition when needed. Another area to consider is that although some materials are happy to lay flat, others require vertical storage, as well as the cost constraints connected to minimum batch quantities.

Due to their fragile nature, we adopted the same method of storing these items, as if we were storing museum objects. The vertical storage was manufactured from our double skinned shelving system which ensures no sharp edges or protrusions, whilst the horizontal storage was constructed from commercial grade adjustable shelving, painted to match the double skinned shelving, with the shelf surfaces being custom fabricated from press formed galvanised sheet.

This was manufactured to an exacting size so as to ensure that the materials stored, only ever came into contact with flat or radiused surfaces, thus protecting the contents.

As with all of our projects, maximum use was made of the available space, to avoid dead areas, which can lead to unwanted items being left in the laboratory.

This was a turnkey project, involving design, manufacture and installation, working closely with the museum’s staff and architect’s.