Design professionals are warning that rising import and construction costs, some as a result of Brexit, could have a big impact on museum capital projects, although the picture is still unclear as negotiations between the UK and the EU continue.
An analysis by the Scape Group, a public sector-owned built environment specialist , suggests that the combination of a construction skills drought and the soaring price of imported materials – largely driven by the falling value of the pound – is increasing costs for the UK construction sector. And while the British construction sector emerged from a technical recession in October, optimism about the future has fallen to a five-year low, according to a survey of purchasing managers published in November by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.
Stephen Greenberg is the founding director of design firm Metaphor, which has worked on major projects at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, among others. Greenberg says that while Brexit is still an unknown factor, costs for capital projects have been rising recently anyway.
“We’re having to value engineer [a system to reduce costs on a project] everything we do because costs are going up,” he says. “On any new museum project, one of the biggest contracts can be showcases. This contract can be bigger than the concrete or steel frame. If they are made in the UK, the glass might have to be imported. It might be more effective to get the showcase from Europe. This applies to all sorts of products used in museums.”
He says that rising costs combined with the government’s austerity programme, budget cuts to local authorities and competing budget priorities for councils “are really crushing museums”.
Stephen Anderson, an associate director of Buttress Architects, which has worked on projects for Manchester Museum and Preston Park Museum in Stockton-on-Tees, says: “Inflation has caught a lot of museum projects out in recent years.”
But he adds that it is unclear what impact Brexit will have on this.
“There is that potential for capital cost increases arising through inflation to cause some problems,” says Anderson. “I think the challenge is around budget planning and costing out projects in the early stages.
“Budget costs are established on limited information and there’s always the potential for something to catch you out.
“Those are things that tend to lead to capital cost increases, not the broader economic pressures brought about by inflation.”
This is particularly a problem for museums, according to Anderson, because they have multiple stakeholders.
Working together
Hannah Fox is the project director for the new Museum of Making for Derby Museums Trust, which is being developed in the city’s Silk Mill, the original site of the world’s first factory.
In October, the trust received confirmation of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£9.4m) and Arts Council England (£2.5m) for the project.
Fox says the construction team met with the client at a very early stage in the design process.
“The people building it are making sure it will work,” she says. “The reason is that we need to make sure public money is spent as effectively as possible. A large amount of waste in such projects is in redesigns, or correcting errors or fixing things as it goes on.”
The redeveloped site, which will cost a total of £16.4m, will display items from Derby’s industrial history and is to open in 2020.
Major UK museum capital projects
Cost Completion
Aberdeen Art Gallery £30m 2018
St Fagans, Cardiff £30m 2018
V&A Dundee £80m 2018
Geffrye Museum, London £18.1m 2019
Derby Silk Mill £16.4m 2020
Manchester Jewish Museum £5m 2020
The Box, Plymouth £37m 2020
Burrell Collection, Glasgow £66m 2020
Scottish National Gallery £16.8m 2020
Museum of London £240m 2022
National Portrait Gallery, London £35.5m 2022
An analysis by the Scape Group, a public sector-owned built environment specialist , suggests that the combination of a construction skills drought and the soaring price of imported materials – largely driven by the falling value of the pound – is increasing costs for the UK construction sector. And while the British construction sector emerged from a technical recession in October, optimism about the future has fallen to a five-year low, according to a survey of purchasing managers published in November by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.
Stephen Greenberg is the founding director of design firm Metaphor, which has worked on major projects at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, among others. Greenberg says that while Brexit is still an unknown factor, costs for capital projects have been rising recently anyway.
“We’re having to value engineer [a system to reduce costs on a project] everything we do because costs are going up,” he says. “On any new museum project, one of the biggest contracts can be showcases. This contract can be bigger than the concrete or steel frame. If they are made in the UK, the glass might have to be imported. It might be more effective to get the showcase from Europe. This applies to all sorts of products used in museums.”
He says that rising costs combined with the government’s austerity programme, budget cuts to local authorities and competing budget priorities for councils “are really crushing museums”.
Stephen Anderson, an associate director of Buttress Architects, which has worked on projects for Manchester Museum and Preston Park Museum in Stockton-on-Tees, says: “Inflation has caught a lot of museum projects out in recent years.”
But he adds that it is unclear what impact Brexit will have on this.
“There is that potential for capital cost increases arising through inflation to cause some problems,” says Anderson. “I think the challenge is around budget planning and costing out projects in the early stages.
“Budget costs are established on limited information and there’s always the potential for something to catch you out.
“Those are things that tend to lead to capital cost increases, not the broader economic pressures brought about by inflation.”
This is particularly a problem for museums, according to Anderson, because they have multiple stakeholders.
Working together
Hannah Fox is the project director for the new Museum of Making for Derby Museums Trust, which is being developed in the city’s Silk Mill, the original site of the world’s first factory.
In October, the trust received confirmation of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£9.4m) and Arts Council England (£2.5m) for the project.
Fox says the construction team met with the client at a very early stage in the design process.
“The people building it are making sure it will work,” she says. “The reason is that we need to make sure public money is spent as effectively as possible. A large amount of waste in such projects is in redesigns, or correcting errors or fixing things as it goes on.”
The redeveloped site, which will cost a total of £16.4m, will display items from Derby’s industrial history and is to open in 2020.
Major UK museum capital projects
Cost Completion
Aberdeen Art Gallery £30m 2018
St Fagans, Cardiff £30m 2018
V&A Dundee £80m 2018
Geffrye Museum, London £18.1m 2019
Derby Silk Mill £16.4m 2020
Manchester Jewish Museum £5m 2020
The Box, Plymouth £37m 2020
Burrell Collection, Glasgow £66m 2020
Scottish National Gallery £16.8m 2020
Museum of London £240m 2022
National Portrait Gallery, London £35.5m 2022