Winning design picked for railway museum’s Central Hall

A team led by architect Feilden Fowles has won the international design competition to create a new Central Hall for the National Railway Museum in York.Feilden Fowles’ team beat 75 others to the commission for a Central Hall to transform the visitor arrival experience in time for the museum’s 50th anniversary in 2025.The jury praised the winning design concept for “its elegance, its ambitious energy strategy and its intriguing new visitor journeys”.The copper-clad two-storey rotunda design is said to reference the history of locomotive roundhouses and railway turntables.The design concept uses a timber frame to reduce the embedded carbon associated with concrete and steel.Feilden Fowles’ design concept was developed with Max Fordham as building services engineer and Price & Myers as structural and civil engineer.Feilden Fowles has a reputation for projects in sensitive historic settings, including the new visitor centre for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It is currently also working with Max Fordham and the National Trust on a new building for Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal.