Esploranatura

Project description:

KCA London was appointed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) to help masterplan the expansion of their current science centre, Esplora, to include a new, world-class, natural history museum. The work included establishing the principles for how the new museum will be integrated with Esplora, both physically and operationally.

MCST had been given the opportunity to run Malta’s National Natural History Museum and relocate it to the Esplora site. They appointed us to help develop a strategy and masterplan for this redevelopment. Having worked with MCST on several different occasions since the early planning of Esplora, we were able to use our detailed understanding of the science centre to help develop a clear proposal for how the site and its operations could be expanded and adapted to accommodate the new museum. This included the development of an architectural brief to support MCST’s appointment and briefing of an architect for the project.

Alongside this, we worked with the MCST and Esplora teams to develop a new vision and interpretation plan for the Natural History Museum itself. MCST aspires to create an entirely new visitor experience – one that reflects worldwide best practice and is more in line with the core values and aspirations of MCST and Esplora – so our work was informed by analysis of Esplora’s core strategy and drivers, and by research into trends and best practice in science museums around the world.