Wonderlab, National Science and Media Museum

In response to a drop-in visitor numbers and concerns over future funding, the National Media Museum in Bradford has undergone a period of reinvention, emerging as the National Science and Media Museum, with a refined remit and a renewed focus on the future.

One of the most exciting additions to the museum’s offering is the new Ab Rogers designed Wonderlab gallery, a £1.8m facility which features twenty permanent exhibitions on the science of light, sound and imagery. Key exhibits include a musical laser tunnel, anti-gravity mirrors and one of the world’s first 3D-printed zoetrope installations. The gallery has been further bolstered by the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that carried Major Tim Peake to the International Space Station (ISS) and back to earth.

We were commissioned to analyse the acoustic implications of partitioning the event, teaching and demonstration spaces in the Wonderlab gallery as well produce a noise map study to predict how sound would be perceived within the space. This lead to recommendations as to the height of a partial height partition for the event space as well as the amount and position of sound absorption within the main exhibition area. In addition, we provided sound absorption recommendations which outlined the amount of absorption required in the Main Gallery area and additional exhibition spaces in order to control reverberation and noise build-up.