黑洞社区

The togs of war

Twenty years ago, work began on the 拢42.5m Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The project was started as a secondary outlet for displaying some of the Tower of London鈥檚 30,000-strong inventory of arms, armour and artefacts, many of which had remained off display due to lack of space. When construction of the museum was initiated, the project was unusual not only for its need of exhibition space, nor its requirement to house animals intended to be part of museum demonstrations, but in the fact that it was one of few private finance initiatives to get off the ground at the time. Then there was also the contract鈥檚 uncommon make-up. Analysing the building鈥檚 inception, 黑洞社区 reporter Graham Ridout said: 鈥淣ot many contracts include bill items for supplying 10 birds of prey, six hunting dogs and six horses. But, then again, there aren鈥檛 many contracts like the 拢42.5m Royal Armouries Museum being built in the centre of Leeds. When the museum opens next spring, the animals will enliven hunting and jousting demonstrations held on open ground next to the 27,400m2 building. Animals are not the only things out of the ordinary about this project. It is also a collective of four separate contracts - each one considerably different.鈥�