Auckland Museum - Strata Wall

Brief

Create an interactive tactile strata wall showing fossils in their relevant rock strata.

Client

Auckland Museum Trust

Manufacture

The wall was 3.5m high and 4.5m wide. Where possible, moulds were taken from real rocks. The museum supplied fossils for moulding but because of the delicate nature of them we had to mould them in a water based moulding medium before casting. These were incorporated into the wall at the various levels, just as they were found in real life. Freeze-dried grass finished the top of the wall representing ground level.

Finished Results / Interesting Notes

In order to mould the various rock surfaces we had to scour locations all over New Zealand. The most demanding was the mud rock, which we reached by climbing a cliff face and which only had a 500mm shelf to work on.