How should a museum present an artifact as a piece of collective heritage? The abstraction of permanent display and the removal of context seem to be the muted evils of all museum display. As a means for presenting people with their own culture, the museum itself seems far less than satisfactory.
It would be foolish to deny that museums are not products of very particular world views, social structures, and economies. In that sense, the images and items they contain are not presented without belief or memory. It is the question of their representation of original loyalties that must be asked. The display of patriotic material is somewhat more straightforward in this regard. After all, the object which symbolized the glory of crown and country two hundred years ago does much the same today, barring some form of political revolution. Still, to offer an object blindly as a uni-dimensional replacement for a flag does a grave disservice, particularly when that object has its own unique set of historical circumstances.
The aspect most unique to the Victory Topsail is that, aside from its obvious historical magnitude, its human story can be revealed through the tool of its contextual location. Herein lies the importance of the architectural design; in that the sail does not stand alone but amongst the structures and objects which gave it significance. The great ropehouse, the great ship basin and the Victory herself are all within a stone's throw. From this, perhaps the most important point to remember about the Fore Topsail is that it represents not only an isolated group of sailors off the coast of Cape Trafalgar. The community of Portsmouth was responsible for design and construction of the weapons, and provision of its sons for the defense of an entire nation. Even for those who were not present at battle, their contribution through the 'greatest industrial complex in the world' was felt. This spirit perhaps best explains the extreme sense of pride felt by locals for the historic dockyard even today.
An architectural response to this pride must therefore include the topsail as one element in the array of features that make up the dockyard as a whole. Another important means of communicating the topsail is through its everyday nature, in danger of being overshadowed by the passage of time. Far too often even the greatest historical artifacts are neglected by a tendency to focus on modern views of their own history, and a failure to relate the human story that accompanies them. In the case of the Victory's Fore Topsail, this could easily be the so, especially given the fact that the public has little common knowledge of life in the navy during the era of sail power. For some of the men who blockaded Cadiz for the long summer months of 1805, the rigging and the sail itself was home. These were the men who lived in and clambered over the upper rigging of the ship to trim the sails, some of whom actually died in the sails on October 21. A permanent display of the fore topsail must encourage the visitor not to merely understand it as a piece of cloth, or a tool. Evocative communication of the human reality of the Trafalgar story is what will ultimately make the display a success.
The added challenge and opportunity offered by the topsail housing design is in its singularity. As a rule, higher quality is expected from any custom made product. Though it may seem simplistic to make this comparison, it directly applies in this case. Whereas traditional museum galleries (with the rare exception of the permanent exhibition) are design to house a never ending parade of artifacts of all shapes and sizes, this concern is removed in the project at hand. The central atrium for the topsail itself therefore can be custom designed down to the smallest detail. Pursuant to this thought is the origin of the phrase Topsail Housing. For inherent to this design for a single purpose is the creation of a home... a living space for the sail. The word shrine seems to imply dutiful, quiet respect for a fragile object. Housing, on the other hand, gives a sense of the active, larger than life quality of the sail. To design a housing for the sail is to present it as a living cultural icon, to present its story at a human scale.
