Scottish Historic Buildings Trust unveils plans to use the Leith Custom House, which is owned by the local authority in Edinburgh, to house a facility designed to be entirely digital
The 200-year-old Leith Custom House in Edinburgh will be home to Scotland’s first fully digital museum.
Last week, the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) shared plans for the Georgian-era site to become “a town square of the 21st century”. Under the proposals, the museum will be located across eight exhibition rooms, each equipped with video walls, listening booths, screens and projectors to display the digital content.
It is understood the exhibitions will include historical documents and oral history archives, as well as object scans and digital contemporary art.
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The plans, free for the public to view this week, are the largest project the SHBT has undertaken since launching 40 years ago, its director Dr Samuel Gallacher said.
“The digital museum fuses the principles of a civic museum with the innovation of a contemporary digital art gallery. This concept promises a world-leading approach to providing a venue suitable for telling the stories of long ago, empowering people to tell their own stories today, as well as showcasing Leith and Scotland’s outstanding digital creative sector,” he added.
Located near the shore and built in 1812, the house was initially used for shipbuilding. However, in 1980 it was closed to the public and bought by the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland – now part of the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) – which used it for storage.
In 2015, after the NMS revealed it was going to sell the building, City of Edinburgh Council stepped in to buy it, later appointing SHBT to complete a feasibility study to ensure a sustainable future for the house.
Following community consultation, the newly released plans build on the preferred option from the study.
The scheme, designed by Richard Murphy Architects, will also include artists’ studios, along with other retail, and leisure facilities based on the ground floor.
This story originally appeared on PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood
