MUSEUM DESIGN SWEET SUCCESS
Chocolate – York’s Sweet Story’s celebrates 200 years of confectionary manufacture and consumption
Chocolate – York’s Sweet Story. The new £2m (2.4m, US$3.2m) UK attraction is based on the city of York’s role in the manufacture of chocolate and confectionery over the last two hundred years. Confectioneers lead visitors
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through a delicious journey from the Aztecs and Mayans to the present day confectionery industry. Guests can perfect their chocolate tasting skills (chocolate should be savoured, rather than gulped down) and learn about the intricate processes that cocoa beans go through in order to become chocolate. The attraction features
archive materials including World War One Christmas tins and the tin of Rowntree’s chocolate found alongside the body of Scott of the Antarctic in 1912.
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“The vision wasn’t to create a museum or a mini theme park, but to build a vibrant visitor attraction which created a stage on which the stories could be told,” explains Continuums’s CEO Juliana Delaney. “The key to Chocolate’s future appeal is that the content isn’t fi xed. The stories are so plentiful and the objects so various that the visitor experience will be refreshed regularly.” The stories currently being told include
the huge impact a Quaker named Mary Tuke made in York when she opened a grocery store in 1725 to sell cocoa; the infl uence of sugared almonds on 1960s fashion; how the sale of cough lozenges and lemon and orange peel in 1767 led to the creation of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges
AM 2 2012 ©cybertrek 2012
and All Gold, which are still popular today; and a look at the billion dollar brand KitKat that now sells 17.8 billion fi ngers every year worldwide in many different forms – in Japan alone there are 43 varieties of the bar, including wasabi. Situated in the heart of the city, the 6,000sq ft (550sq m) three-storey attraction opened on 31st March and includes a shop and café selling choctails. Suppliers to the project included
Centrescreen and Paragon, Skelton Consultancy and MET Studio, which did the interior fi t-out and exhibition, including all the graphics and script.
DELICIOUS DESIGN MET Studio’s design director Lloyd Hicks decided against a diorama-based historical approach on the origins of chocolate in Central America or a Willy Wonka fun factory experience. “We wanted to tell this
ost people enjoy chocolate, but their appreciation can be taken to a whole new level at
Two centuries of confectionery are celebrated at Chocolate
fascinating story in a more immersive and interactive way,” says Hicks. “Our central premise was the idea of chocolate alchemy and the ingredients and processes that go into the art of chocolate-making. “Visually, a massive sculpted ribbon, based on the look of melted chocolate, threads throughout one whole fl oor, creating structure in the space. The ribbon is inset with interactives, objects and graphics which cover provenance, recipes and individual confectionery successes – with the world- leading Kit-Kat featuring here – as well as packaging, advertising and a celebration of the industry’s founding fathers.” “Large bubbles, inspired by melting
chocolate, are used to tell the story of chocolate as visitors go through this fl oor,” continues Hicks. “Trained cast members act as confectioneers, advising on the art of chocolate-making and teaching visitors how to properly enjoy chocolate.” ●
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