Maidstone Museum East Wing

The two gold copper alloy shingle and glass clad extensions have been added to the Elizabethan manor that is the core of the museum.

The new east wing provides a new front door for the museum facing Maidstone’s main shopping street., which opens into an open-plan foyer occupied by Maidstone’s visitor information centre and a knick-knack shop.

The wing contains several new galleries exhibition spaces including the Japanese gallery, which is dominated by a striking Samurai costume collected in the 19th century by one of the museum’s founders, sits directly above the ground-floor reception.

The scheme also provides a study area overlooking the gardens, educational facilities, a new enlarged shop, new public toilets and improved storage areas and, within currently inaccessible areas between the existing buildings, a new public courtyard facing the historic elevations of the original building.