Automatic fire & smoke curtains at the National Museum Edinburgh

BLE. Protecting Scotland’s Treasure at The National Museum.

On Friday 29th July 2011, visitors to the newly opened National Museum of Scotland could take their first look at the stunning redevelopments which have transformed the Royal Museum. The building, which had previously been voted the 'best-loved' Edinburgh building of the last 150 years by the Edinburgh Architectural Association, stands proud in the hearts of Scots, so a positive reception to the new design was critical.

The transformation, led by Gareth Hoskins Architects, had to retain the inherent beauty and historic features of the existing building while increasing public spaces by 50 per cent. The new design created sixteen new galleries, a new café and learning centre, and an additional 800m2 of exhibition space. It has enabled the display of thousands of new treasures – 80 per cent of which are on display for the first time.

BLE Smoke & Fire Curtains worked closely with Buro Happold, one of the foremost fire engineering agencies in the world, to develop the fire strategy. It was a challenging environment because of the age of the building, the fact that it was a Grade 1 listed building and the short time frame involved. The engineers at BLE installed all the automatic smoke curtains together with the automatic fire curtains, many of which were hidden behind the arches to retain the aesthetic impact of the original building.

There is a world of historic discovery in the National Museum of Scotland with dinosaurs to designer chairs, and mummies to motor cars – all protected by the very latest technology from BLE.

Download a PDF of our casestudy regarding the automatic smoke and fire curtains installation in the National Museum, Edinburgh.

For more information on this or any other fire curtain project, please email us or call 0114 251 4703.

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