To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, we were tasked with building and installing 7 wooden exhibition units on the mound at National Galleries of Scotland by the morning of March 9th 2020.
With only 8 days from the initial brief, we sat down and worked out a plan for manufacture of structures ensuring they were able to withstand all elements of weather and possible vandalism – and taking into account that the units were required to be reusable.
Using exterior ply and a couple of coats of paint we manufactured the structures with strappings on the bottom to be able to hold a few tons of breeze blocks and lock them in. Laminated printed foamboard was produced for all four sides with an additional foamboard roof. With lockdown happening a short time after installation these structures were up for a very long period of time in which they were as good as they were from March 9th.
At First Display we have the skill, and of course the machinery, to produce these and we managed to fulfil to the timescale required. This project exhibits the importance of utilising the correct materials and working to a tight deadline.