Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (PMAG)- Arts Council England - Phase 1 Pre-Construction Service Agreement RIBA Stage 3 & 4

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and their appointed Multi- Disciplinary Design Team procured the services of a Main Contractor via a Two-Stage Tender under a JCT Design & Build 2024 Contract.

The appointed Contractor will enter a Pre-Construction Services Agreement with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to assist with the development of the RIBA Stage 3 & 4, within the parameters of the Arts Council England (ACE) Funding Criteria

The multi-disciplinary design team were appointed in December 2023, and since this time have

undertaken significant internal and external stakeholder engagement to develop the RIBA Stage 2

Stage 3 Brief. The Brief has not only had to satisfy key stakeholders, but also the ACE Funding Criteria.

The ACE Funding Criteria for ‘Agreed Use’:

• An integrated research facility for the study of ceramics and local history
• A publicly accessible accredited museum.
• Rehousing of the City’s Archives, including a reading room (separate project already

completed).

• Storage and office areas, including staff welfare.
• Artist in residence and workshop spaces with public viewing.
• Learning and teaching spaces to support education, health, and wellbeing programmes.

The design teams research and design development has been led by the specific ambitions set out in the successful funding bid application to Arts Council England for Cultural Development Funding:

• The refurbishment of the main entrance to create a greater sense of arrival and welcome.
• Repurposing and better use of existing floor space at ground, upper basement and lower basement levels.
• Creation of a new reading room (separate project already completed).
• Upgrading and relocation of the existing teaching and learning spaces.
• Creation of additional storage areas and office space.
• Improved staff welfare space.

Further to these considerations, we have also identified a series of other important issues to be

addressed through the project works:

• Currently PMAG has limited external appeal and appears disconnected from Hanley Centre.
• The internal public flows are confusing and not intuitively read.
• The first floor is sparsely visited, despite the excellence of the collections.
• A new visitor could visit the Museum without knowing a café exists.
• As highlighted by the client team, the ‘moat’ around the building along Bethesda Street and Broad Street is highly problematic; separating the building from its surroundings, creating unpleasant narrow spaces which can foster anti-social behaviour and creating an unattractive edge to the public realm.
• The latent internal drama is somewhat undersold – the central triple-height internal void should be an exciting ‘reveal’ but currently this is not manifesting

The Works

The remodelling of PMAG encompasses several elements, as set out below:

• The main entrance is moved to the north-eastern corner of the building, with a chamfered

building line sitting under the Museum’s existing cantilevered overhang. Providing greater

connectivity to the Public Realm.

• The existing triple height Sculpture Court will provide an open storage gallery space,

addressing both the shortfall in current storage accommodation and provide greater public

access to currently hidden parts of the Museum’s collections. Increasing the museums open

storage offering.

• The main café is brought front of house, served by a kitchen housed in an under-utilised

circulation space adjacent to the former Sculpture court. New glazing along the eastern

frontage allows for sections to fold away enabling an open flow to an extensive external terrace.

Bringing the café to the front elevation will make it a vastly more appealing destination and will

show the museum as an animated and popular place for passers-by.(First Floor Kitchen

Stores and Offices to be value engineered).

• The access to an appealing external terrace will also being a great benefit to café users, with

views across to the heritage buildings on the other side of Bethesda Street.

• The existing café area is retained to serve the education / conference suite which can be directly

accessed from the secondary entrance between the original museum and the new Spitfire

Gallery from the east. The existing café space would be a multi-function space, for instance to

display the artwork of visiting school groups.

• A new glazed Artist-in-Residence Space within the Entrance Foyer which will provide a degree

of animation and connectivity with the public.

• A new circulation spine is introduced at each public floor level; in particular at first floor level a

line of offices is removed to accommodate this circulation route, providing a new linear art

gallery space (will be value engineered).

• New and enlarged toilets are provided close to the main entrance at ground floor level. The

toilets are more generous than currently and include both an accessible WC and a Changing

Places space.

• The reception and shop are relocated to address the new entrance; in addition, secure lines

are established through sliding pocket doors (also providing fire compartmentation) so that in

an extended hours situation the front of house area can be opened up independently of the

whole museum. This front of house area would include the café space, reception, and toilets,

and could be used for a variety of events and functions with or without using the theatre space.

Accordingly, the whole arrangement of functions within PMAG are made more logical to the

benefit of public and staff alike.

• A new education space is proposed in a space currently under-utilised for storage to the rear

of the Staffordshire Hoard, supplemented both by the education / conference suite.