RIBA Stirling Prize 2021: Windermere Jetty Museum

Windermere Jetty Museum
by Carmody Groarke

Nestling into the eastern shore of Lake Windermere, the Jetty Museum creates a compelling composition of vernacular forms which achieves an unusual reconciliation of the reassuringly familiar with the strikingly contemporary. When seen from the lake its dark shed-like buildings are embedded in the wooded hillside behind, but on arrival, the museum exudes the confident identity of a major cultural institution.

The cluster of pitched roof forms successfully breaks down the large scale of the museum, integrating it into its landscape setting. This seemingly picturesque arrangement derives its layout from functional requirements whilst carefully framing views of the lake. It is these views, and the experience of the water, which become the main protagonist in the considered and choreographed sequence of the visitors' route, with the building successfully blurring boundaries between climate controlled galleries, workshops, the wet dock
and the lake itself. Learning from older Lakeland buildings, the provision of deeply overhanging eaves creates external rooms, sheltering visitors from the elements.

Visit our website to learn about the RIBA Stirling Prize: https://www.architecture.com/awards-a...

Image credit: Hufton Crow