In the port and resort town of Poole on the south coast of England, ZMMA has completed the redevelopment of Poole Museum. Guided by a fabric-first decarbonisation strategy, the London-based multidisciplinary creative practice has undertaken the phased redevelopment and retrofit of a complex of medieval, 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century buildings along the town’s historic quayside, bringing them together as a single, accessible public institution.
Working collaboratively with the Museum’s curatorial team, BCP Council, Historic England, Arts Council England, and the local community, ZMMA has reconfigured the historic structures and collections to establish a coherent visitor route across six floors. The project includes new permanent and temporary exhibition galleries alongside the remodelling of the adjacent Grade I listed merchant’s house, Scaplen’s Court. The redevelopment was supported by major funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England.
Integrated architecture and exhibition design
Appointed as both architect and exhibition designer, ZMMA developed a series of permanent exhibitions in which open displays, cased objects, graphics, and interactive elements are integrated within the historic architectural fabric. Architecture and exhibition design are conceived together to support a unified visitor experience across the Museum.
Views from the galleries have been opened towards the port and harbour, establishing visual connections between the exhibitions and the quayside townscape, with wider views across the Purbeck peninsula on England’s south coast.
Public realm and setting
The surrounding public realm has been redesigned to create a campus linking the Museum and Scaplen’s Court. This approach gives both buildings greater prominence and establishes a legible public destination, supporting activity along the historic High Street and the Quay.
Architectural sequence through the historic buildings
The visitor route is organised through a series of restored historic structures, beginning in the Grade II listed, six-storey, 18th-century grain warehouse. Here, a new three-storey void has been inserted to connect vertically through the building, exposing the original timber framework and establishing visual and spatial continuity between levels.
The warehouse accommodates ‘Harbour Life’, with displays arranged within the existing structure and set against large-scale seascape photography, allowing the volume and fabric of the building to remain legible.
The route continues into the fully restored Grade I listed medieval Wool Hall, which houses the Museum’s largest exhibition space. The hall’s scale and structure provide the setting for the ‘Shipwreck!’ displays, including a preserved 10-metre-long Iron Age log boat and a group of medieval ships’ timbers presented within the open volume.
Additional galleries are distributed across the complex, including spaces dedicated to Poole’s international trading history, its connections with Newfoundland and the Beothuk people, the slavery trade, and seamen’s lives at sea, alongside galleries focused on the town’s pottery heritage and art collection.
Accessibility and circulation
The renewed Museum, exhibitions, and wider grounds are designed to be welcoming to both local communities and visitors. ZMMA reorganised visitor routes, reconfigured floor levels, and installed new staircases and lifts to ensure all exhibition, activity, and events spaces are fully accessible. To deliver a seamless, step-free journey across the historic structures and to refine sensory exhibition elements, ZMMA worked closely with accessibility consultants and a reference group of expert advocates from the local community.
Expanded public access and facilities
The campus reconfiguration doubles the amount of publicly accessible space. In addition to the exhibition galleries, the redevelopment includes learning, creative, and activity spaces, income-generating events spaces, accessible archives, and a reading room, café, and shop, all integrated into the visitor experience.
New staff areas, collections management spaces, and catering facilities have been created at Scaplen’s Court, supporting a wide range of cultural, business, and private events within the historic setting.
Approachable and interactive exhibitions
The exhibition design prioritises open displays and close-up engagement with objects. Interactivity is embedded throughout, supporting participation and learning across all ages and abilities. This includes tactile interactive elements and screen-based exploratory experiences, such as an immersive film of maritime archaeologists at work projected beneath a glass floor.
The exhibition design language is simple and clear, with a restrained palette that relates to the architecture, materiality, and hand-crafted qualities of the collection. Material choices, display strategies, and wayfinding support clarity, legibility, and intuitive movement, while respecting the heritage context.
Collections, conservation, and climate strategy
The deep retrofit strategy began with the selective removal of late 20th-century interventions, including mezzanines, staircases, partitions, and linings, to reveal and repair the original historic fabric. This enabled extensive conservation of the complex’s stone and timber structures, including the medieval stone walls of the Town Cellars.
Environmental performance was addressed through a coordinated decarbonisation strategy spanning both embodied and operational energy. Interventions were informed by building-specific energy modelling and focused on fabric-first improvements, low-impact materials, and reduced reliance on mechanical systems, while remaining compatible with the historic context.
Environmental considerations also extend to construction and fit-out, including a timber-first approach, reuse of existing fabric, and the specification of recycled and low-emission materials within the exhibition infrastructure.
Low-energy environmental control systems and lighting have been integrated discreetly into the historic structures to provide appropriate conservation conditions for the collection, including sensitive archaeological material. The project also incorporates a temporary exhibitions gallery meeting Government Indemnity Standard requirements, enabling the loan and display of nationally touring collections.
Adam Zombory-Moldovan, Director, ZMMA Architects, said:
“Appointed as architects and exhibition designers, we have been able to unify architecture, exhibition, graphics, lighting, and interactives into an atmospheric, layered visitor experience. Every aspect, from the campus masterplan and architectural interventions, right down to object display details, supports accessibility, intellectual and emotional resonance, and a joined-up, elevated experience.”
Alison Gudgeon, Senior Project Manager, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, said:
“ZMMA’s design has helped us maximise public space, reorganise functions and facilities to deliver the most efficient and best operation. They have helped create a rich and varied visitor experience, ensuring our buildings are fit for modern purpose and saved for a generation.”
