Faith Museum, Auckland Castle

The Faith Museum is an extension of a Grade I listed castle, positioned along the line of a medieval retaining wall from the original castle complex. It houses an exhibition on faith in Britain, along with an environmentally controlled art storage facility. Despite its secular designation, the building is designed to evoke a sense of the sacred, reflecting the museum’s contents. Architectural details, such as roof finials, were developed to accentuate its simple, barn-like form. The primary exhibition space on the first floor is characterised by its lightweight, thicket-like roof structure. The building’s minimalist form, low glazing ratio, and fabric first approach underpin its low carbon operational strategy. The external envelope is composed entirely of locally quarried Cop Crag sandstone from Northumberland. The stone, cut and laid in varying patterns, evokes the weathered surfaces of the stone around the castle shaped by centuries of exposure, lending the new structure a rich, textured character