Biggin Hill Memorial Museum

A new museum tells the story of Britain’s most famous fighter station during the Battle of Britain.

This ‘A’-rated building features an underground thermal labyrinth to passively heat or cool the exhibition space, thereby reducing energy use.

The new single-storey brick and timber structure adjacent to St George’s RAF Chapel of Remembrance exhibits a collection and audio visual display telling the personal stories of those who served at the airfield. The visitor experience includes the refurbished Chapel, new gift shop and a cafe.

We devised the environmental concept for this simple building to rely on low-energy, fan-assisted natural ventilation and therefore avoid the complexity and running costs of a conventional air conditioning system.

Main Reception

Work began on site in 2017 to excavate the foundations, which accommodate a shallow ventilation labyrinth to naturally cool or warm the exhibition space. Ventilation air moves slowly through the long and convoluted underground passageway designed to have a high thermal capacity and large surface area. The result is a natural tempering of the air before it enters the exhibition through grilles in the floor.

In summer the warm outside air is cooled down; in winter the cold air is warmed up. Air leaves the rooms through secure roofvents or bronze vent panels integrated with the picture windows.

The air void and labyrinth air path was developed to work with a standard beam and block floor.

Tilly inspecting the air path

Plan of Below Building Air Path

The floor and walls of the labyrinth air path are designed to accommodate a small risk of ground movement.

A bespoke pre-cast concrete trough was developed for each supply air point within the floor.
This accommodates a motorised insulated damper that open and closes in response to temperature and air quality.

We worked with the exhibition designers to develop artificial lighting designs to illuminate a range of objects on display and accompanying wall graphics.

We carefully integrated the exhibition lighting into the timber grid ceiling structure using a network of minimal jack-plug points that enables a range of spotlight configurations without any visible electrical cableways.

Display Lighting Configurations