Away from the hustle and bustle of Glasgow City Centre, on the outskirts of Kelvingrove Park, sits something truly spectacular.
The historic Kelvin Hall has opened its doors to a very special visitor – Trix, the Tyrannosaurus rex. Being just one of the three most complete skeletons in the world, this 66-million year old fossil has become the newest addition to Kelvin Hall as Trix finishes her European Tour.
With such a precious artefact taking centre stage the clients, Glasgow Life and City Building, needed to ensure Trix was well protected. Enter the Field and Lawn Industrial Structures team.
Trix’s temporary home in Glasgow needed to be a controllable environment that was fully insulated to avoid moisture damage. This meant designing and building an entirely bespoke demountable semi-permanent structure within the 8,000 sqm Kelvin Hall.
Measuring 20m wide x 30m long and with an eave height of 8m, the unique structure comprises a flat roof to maximise the available internal space. This project comprised several unique elements for the Field and Lawn team, including the management of several stakeholders who were communicated and consulted with throughout the process to ensure that Trix would get the best stay possible for her stop in Glasgow.
Commercial Director, Ross Robertson headed up this unique project and shared more about the team’s process and considerations.
“The structure that we designed was entirely bespoke and was designed to meet all of the stakeholders’ requirements. The structure had to be located inside the space of the Kelvin Hall and had to provide a fully controlled environment, while having as high a ceiling as possible within the space. With the flat roof structure, we managed to incorporate 6.6m of clear internal height. The structure is fitted with insulated panels on the sides and roof and these panels are coloured black externally and white internally in order to provide a “sealed box” – ensuring visitors are in a special environment and also protecting the artefact. As part of our package we also provided all lighting, emergency lighting, roller shutter door, entrance / emergency doors, internal flooring, floor covering and walling – everything you need for a temporary museum.
“The structure looks spectacular and is also future-proofed to ensure that many more touring exhibits and events can be housed in this unique sustainable building. We are very proud to be associated with this project and it showcases what we as a team can provide with our range of Temporary Industrial Structures and our supply chain.”
Following the T Rex in Town exhibition, the plan is to utilise the space for subsequent exhibitions so ensuring the marquee was fit for this purpose was absolutely essential. We can’t wait to see what will come to Kelvin Hall in future and we wish Trix a safe trip back to her new permanent home in the Netherlands.
The T Rex in Town exhibition runs until 31 July 2019 and is Trix’s last stop in Europe, so make sure you don’t miss out on seeing this fantastic specimen while you can. To find out how you could better utilise your space with a temporary structure, contact your nearest Field and Lawn branch.
