Rackline are pleased to announce the winning of a major contract with the Natural History Museum in London.

Darwin Centre Phase Two is the new wing to the Natural History Museum which will provide a mix of office and work spaces, laboratories, exhibition and public areas, but most significantly will be the storage areas for many rare Museum entomology and botany collections within a new, exciting architectural cocoon structure.

The cocoon structure within an atrium is a unique and prestigious design to accompany the Natural History Museum and will prove to be a landmark building in West London. The collections are to be placed on permanent view to the public.

Rackline's brief was to provide the mobile bases on which the cabinets that contain the entomology and botany collections will be placed. In working with the Natural History Museum on the design Rackline had to consider numerous facets to this complicated process as the collection is one of the broadest and rarest in the world. Museum beetles which are a major threat to these collections have to be considered at all times and the ability of Rackline to provide mobile bases that would remain free of the dust and detritus that allow these beetles to thrive was critical in the selection process. In addition, providing a product that would be aesthetically pleasing and harmonise with the unique construction was implicit in the design that Rackline ultimately put together.

Rackline will begin installation of the bases in the prestigious building during 2007.

Notes to editors
Darwin Centre Phase Two will be built on the west side of the Natural History Museum's site in South Kensington. It will join the grade one listed Waterhouse Building with Darwin Centre Phase One to complete the Darwin Centre development. Phase Two will house the Museum's collections of historically unique and scientifically irreplaceable insects and plants, provide state-of-the-art laboratories for their study and allow the public into the heart of this research facility. More than £60 million has been pledged to build Darwin Centre Phase Two and a fundraising campaign is underway to reach the final target. Major supporters include the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Wellcome Trust, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Cadogan Charity, Professor Anthony and Mrs Angela Marmont and GlaxoSmithKline plc. Phase One, housing the Museum's 22 million zoological specimens stored in spirit, opened in September 2002 and was crucial to the Museum winning the Gold Award for Large Visitor Attraction of the Year at the Excellence in England Awards 2004.