MOVING ROALD DAHL'S WRITING HUT

CLIENT : THE ROALD DAHL MUSEUM AND STORY CENTRE

At the heart of the new Solo gallery is Roald Dahl’s world-famous writing hut. His daily workspace for over 30 years, where all his best-loved books were written, it had sat untouched in his garden at nearby Gipsy House since his death in 1990.

To recreate this confined space to balance intimacy and access, we built a millimetre-perfect replica of the inner writing room and hinged a whole section of the structure; when the Museum is quiet, the hut can be closed for maximum, spine-tingling impact. The gallery couldn't hold the whole hut, but the 'magic' door and aquajet-cut lino patterns mark out the full area with quotes and stories - our favourite is that Roald Dahl told some visiting children there were wolves in his hut, to make sure they would never go in!

The hut’s contents were moved forensically, right down to the dirt on thefloor and the tobacco-stained polystyrene wall insulation. Every photograph, paperclip and hip bone (yes, really) was carefully recorded, checked and conserved before the display was recreated in its new, museum-grade enclosure, covered with illustrated roses setting out, in the words of one of his daughters, Roald Dahl's writing process. We even wrote a book, to help visitors explore this trove of almost 200 objects, every one holding a story - this is now a brisk seller in the Museum shop.