The plans centre around the repositioning of Eureka! as the UK’s National Children’s Museum, and the development of the existing site to deliver the most inspiring play-based learning experience possible.
The announcement comes as the visitor attraction builds on a hugely successful 2008 when the museum welcomed over 255,000 visitors, the most since 2001.
Leeds-based architects Bauman Lyons have been working with Eureka! to create a master plan setting out how the site could develop over the next 15 years. These plans support the future vision of Halifax, taking into account plans for the West Yorkshire town’s centre and the aspirations of Calderdale Council.
The plan opens up the museum’s site to improve the physical connections with the town, the station and the Piece Hall. Playful pathways and a new lift will enable visitors to move between Eureka!, the railway station and the town with ease, allowing the 220,000 people who visit Eureka! each year from outside Calderdale to access Halifax, and giving local people the opportunity to freely access the site.
The museum’s outdoor space will be transformed to create an urban park that can be accessed by children and their families at any time. Unlike any other park in design, this will be a green playscape entirely free of traffic and full of water features, activity areas, eco-trails and natural spaces.
Inside, Eureka!’s galleries will be updated, extended and renewed in keeping with the museum’s unique style. Key themes will be the planet and its resources, people and their health along with citizenship, science and technology. Me and My Body, Eureka!’s original and enduringly popular gallery, will be renewed, and the Living & Working Together gallery will be extended and altered to reflect a 21st century community that children can identify with. More flexible space will be introduced as well as greater opportunities for creative play and individual expression.
Eureka! will become a centre of excellence for green technology, with environmental sustainability threaded through all aspects of the museum’s activities. A new green building, complete with a living roof, will be built to house the café, shop and additional event spaces. This new place will be used by members of the community, local businesses as well as Eureka! visitors. The new café will use produce grown on site in the gardens and greenhouses that will be part of this outdoor space.
