The Royal Army Chaplain’s Museum

Shrivenham

The Royal Army Chaplain’s Museum, at the MOD’s Defence Academy site at Shrivenham, houses a diverse collection of archives and artefacts while telling the story of Faith in the Forces. The project is part of a 25-year Defence initiative to invest in a more modern and sustainable estate. As well as housing permanent collections, the new museum is centred on a purpose-built exhibition gallery providing flexible spaces for visiting displays. The landscape was an integral part of the design, and careful consideration has been given to minimise the impact on the environment while working with the confines of the site. These include an existing watercourse, trees and a highway, while a piled foundation solution was adopted to create a stable base in the poor ground conditions. The end result is a striking single storey LVL timber frame with deep beams providing visual interest and solar shading.