Roman Villa Museum

The discovery of a Roman villa beneath the Somerset countryside presented The Newt with an unusual challenge: how do you bring history to life without simply placing it behind glass? Stonewood Design's response was to create a contemporary museum above the excavated remains, with a full-scale reconstructed Roman villa serving as its most ambitious exhibit.

The project invites visitors to move seamlessly between archaeology and interpretation. Beneath a light-filled pavilion, fragments of Roman Britain are preserved and displayed in situ; beyond it, a reconstructed villa reveals how those fragments once formed part of a thriving domestic world. Together, the two elements create a carefully choreographed journey from excavation to inhabitation.

Extensive research informed every aspect of the reconstruction, from the limestone walls and mosaic floors to the revived hypocaust heating system. Rather than treating the villa as a replica, the project uses architecture as a tool for understanding the past, allowing visitors to experience Roman domestic life at first hand.

The result is neither museum piece nor theme park, but a thoughtfully realised cultural destination that connects architecture, landscape and archaeology in a uniquely immersive way.

Over a two-year period, the project required 52 separate visits to document the construction of the museum, the reconstructed Roman villa, the exhibition design and the completed building. The commission included architectural and construction photography, filming, drone photography, time-lapse, portrait photography and the documentation of architectural models.

While initially commissioned by The Newt and Stonewood Design Architects, the resulting imagery was also commissioned and licensed by multiple project partners, including specialist subcontractors and exhibition designers kossmanndejong in Amsterdam.

The photographs were subsequently used across the museum exhibition itself, promotional films, a large-format book, postcards and articles published by international architecture journals including Dezeen, RIBAJ, AD and ArchDaily.