ZMMA designed the Home Galleries, a major part of the NLHF supported ‘Unlocking the Geffrye’ project to breathe new life into the Museum’s 300-year-old almshouses. The new galleries allow the museum to bring out many hidden gems from storage and expand on the theme of home, moving beyond the close focus of the period room displays to consider home more broadly – socially, geographically and culturally.
The project transforms the Geffrye Museum’s existing buildings, opening up previously unseen parts of the historic almshouses and improve access and circulation throughout the site.
The creation of the new Home Galleries beneath the almshouses has increased existing display space by 50%. Through the enfilade of domestic scale rooms we created a changing sequence of atmospheres and moods which reflect the different stories being told – at times playful, at other times, serious and contemplative.
Throughout the galleries is beautifully crafted display furniture – suggestive of tables, picture frames and with graphic panels gently folding out of the walls, as if they were cupboard doors opening to reveal layers of previous inhabitation.
