Maritime Museum

The new 440m2 Ocean Map is at the heart of the National Maritime Museum, designed to bring a sense of the ocean back into the space and turn visitors’ views of the world inside out. Forbo’s Eternal heterogeneous vinyl was selected to create the bespoke, digitally printed floor graphic.

Part of Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG), the National Maritime Museum showcases some 2.48 million items, including some of the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea. Recently, the RMG has undertaken an ambitious project to transform the visitor experience at the heart of the museum.

As part of wider refurbishment works to the National Maritime Museum’s central atrium, the closure of the space proved an ideal time to review and refresh the wider interior design, with a focus on bringing a sense of the ocean back into the space. This included replacing a huge floor graphic of the world map, which had previously been an extremely popular feature of the space.

The project was a collaborative effort between iFlor Flooring Contractors, Harvey Maria and Forbo. Harvey Maria managed all client design and artwork, while iFlor handled the on-site installation.

Measuring 440m2, the new digitally printed Ocean Map floor graphic is designed to turn visitors’ views of the world inside out. While most world maps focus on countries and continents, the Ocean Map is all about water.

Speaking about the project, Holly Wright, Senior Exhibitions Project Manager at Royal Museums Greenwich, said: “We were looking for a flooring solution that would allow us to deliver on our visions for the new, impressive Ocean Map graphic. We sought a product that was simple in its engineering, allowed the underfloor cooling and heating system to work effectively, and had a lower carbon footprint. Having sought technical advice from consulting engineers and after reviewing material samples, the Museum chose to specify the Eternal digitally printed vinyl flooring from Forbo Flooring Systems.”