Centenary Masterplan

The RAF Museum sits at the edge of what was once the London Aerodrome and then RAF Hendon, an eight-hectare site used for aviation since it opened in 1911. As traditional audiences shifted and major new housing developments brought a younger, more diverse community to its doorstep, the museum had become increasingly disconnected from its surroundings. Beyond new facilities, the site needed clearer routes, more public space and facilities serving both museum visitors and its new neighbours.

Working with landscape architects Agence Ter, Nex put the landscape at the heart of the masterplan. Relocating the car park to the edge of the site freed the centre of the museum for a new green space, recalling the open ground of the former aerodrome. A circular taxiway connects all the exhibition spaces, encouraging visitors to explore at their own pace, with flat, clearly defined paths making the whole site easy to navigate.

The largest intervention reuses a 1970s hangar as the museum’s new entrance, main galleries and visitor centre. While the industrial exterior is retained, a new 40-metre cantilevered roof canopy signals the drama within, its aerofoil profile referring to the aircraft collection. Inside, we reconfigured the exhibition spaces around a Sunderland flying boat too fragile to move during construction, improving the visitor journey and opening up views across the site without disturbing the collection.

A new pavilion at the centre of the hangar houses a shop, café and flexible event spaces, its red enclosure marking the shared facilities around the hangar’s perimeter, softening the acoustics, and offering a backdrop to the historic airframes beyond.