The Downland Gridshell grew out of the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum's need to bring together its artefact collection and to continue to conserve and restore historic buildings and to find a way to open up both to visitors.

Since it first opened in 1970, the Museum's artefacts' collection had grown to 10,000 items and outgrown its storage, which was off-site, inaccessible and not environmentally controlled. Likewise, the Museum's conservation programme also took place off site.

Key amongst the Museum's aims for this, the UK's first permanent timber gridshell building, was the desire to create an exceptional space, to use both benign and sustainable materials, to ensure access for all and to create an environment that would be as flexible as possible.

Since it opened in June 2002, the building conservation workshop for timber framing, conservation of large objects and training courses, basement artefact store and conservation studio are in full use and there are daily guided tours of the entire building.

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