Commemorating the Titanic: New museum celebrates Belfast’s maritime history

by Jonathan McGaha | 29 February 2012 12:00 am

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, the new Titanic Belfast museum will open on March 31 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Located a mere 100 yards in front of where the Titanic’s hull was launched, the 120,000-square-foot venue features nine galleries of interactive exhibition space, including a dark ridge, underwater exploration theater, re-creations of the ship’s decks and cabins, and a luxurious conference and banquet suite with room for up to 1,000 people.

Visitors to the six-story museum will learn about the construction of the RMS Titanic, along with the story of Northern Ireland’s industrial and maritime heritage. The 19,332-square-foot entrance level ground floor includes a 60-foot-high wall covered in sheet metal panels similar in size to those used on the hull of the Titanic. Additionally, the ticketing desks are designed to replicate wooded keel blocks similar to those that the Titanic rested upon in the Titanic dock.

The building’s external façade replicates four 90-foot-high hulls that lean out at angles of up to 25 degrees, relying heavily on advanced computer-aided analysis. The façade is clad in 3,000 individual 3-D panels, each folded from J57S pre-anodized silver aluminum sheets from Novelis Inc., Atlanta, into complicated asymmetrical geometries. Of those, 2,000 panels are completely unique in form, while none of the “typical” panels are repeated more than 20 times, creating a remarkably random effect that always manages to catch the light from the surrounding reflective pools of water.

“The reason we wanted aluminum was primarily for the natural anodized finish, which is beautiful in different light, with a variation that isn’t seen with powder coating or other self-finish metals,” says Angus Waddington, RIBA, associate with Belfast-based TODD Architects, the executive architect. The project was designed with concept architect CivicArts/Eric R. Kuhne & Associates, London.

“The futuristic look and durability of the J57S pre-anodized aluminum façade makes it the ideal choice for such an iconic project,” says Emilio Braghi, vice president and general manager of Novelis Specialities. “We are delighted to be part of the Titanic Belfast and Northern Ireland’s tribute to the Titanic.”

The building also features a series of trusses that span up to 118 feet to support a VM ZINC standing seam roof from Umicore Building Products USA Inc., Raleigh, N.C., with a glazed perimeter. Edgeline Metal Roofing Ltd., Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, installed the roof, which uses Metdeck warm roof decking board by Metal Processors Ltd., Dublin, Ireland.

Expected to attract 400,000 visitors annually, the museum is located in the heart of the Titanic Quarter, where the Titanic was constructed. To the right of the museum is the drawing office where the Titanic was designed, while on the left is the River Lagan where she first set sail. The area is undergoing a restoration of the Titanic and Olympic slipways, the Thompson Dock and Harland
& Wolff’s former headquarters building. The new 185-acre city quarter with a mile of water frontage will be home to more than 7,500 apartments, and approximately 10 million square feet of business and education facilities, research and development space, hotels, restaurants, cafés and bars.

Supported by the Northern Ireland Executive, the project is a unique public/private partnership funded by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour and Titanic Quarter Ltd. The museum will be operated by Titanic Belfast Ltd., and owned by the Titanic Foundation Ltd.

Started in May 2009, the project was built by Harcourt Construction, Belfast. Metallbau Früh, Umkirch, Germany, was the contractor and installer for the façade, which was fabricated in an RF50 rainscreen system by Belfast-based EDM Spanwall Facades.

 

Titanic Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Owner: Titanic Foundation Ltd.

Concept architect: CivicArts/Eric R. Kuhne
& Associates, London

Executive architect: TODD Architects, Belfast

Builder: Harcourt Construction, Belfast

Façade contractor/installer: Metallbau Früh, Umkirch, Germany

Façade fabricator: EDM Spanwall Facades, Belfast

Roofing contractor: Edgeline Metal Roofing Ltd., Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Aluminum sheets: Novelis Inc., Atlanta, www.novelis.com[1]

Metal roofing panels: Umicore Building Products USA Inc., Raleigh, N.C., www.vmzinc-us.com[2]

Roof decking board: Metdeck by Metal Processors Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, www.metdeck.co.uk[3]

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/commemorating-the-titanic/

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