Exhibition Design, Manufacture and Fit-Out Services for Donegal Famine Heritage Centre CLG (trading as The Workhouse), Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal

Tender description

The Donegal Famine Heritage Centre CLG (trading as 'The Workhouse') seeks to appoint a suitably qualified service provider to deliver the final design, production, and fit-out of a modern museum exhibition at The Workhouse, Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal. Project Context and Funding The Workhouse, Dunfanaghy has been awarded grant funding by Failte Ireland through the Coast-to-Coast Capital Investment Scheme. This project is a cornerstone of the organisation's strategy, which aims to quintuple visitor numbers and revenue by transforming the site into a premier, year round, all weather destination on the Wild Atlantic Way. Core Deliverables: The Service Provider will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of the exhibition, including: Final Interpretive and Spatial Design: Utilising the provided Draft Interpretive Plan and Content Framework to develop a high-quality, universally accessible visitor journey across an envisaged five distinct zones. This includes proposing a creative repositioned layout for internal partition walls to optimise visitor flow, maximising physical wall space, and the design, off-site fabrication, and installation of a detailed, historically accurate physical scale model of the original Workhouse building and grounds to serve as a central interpretive anchor. Content and Language Management: Collaborating closely with the Workhouse Working Group to edit and finalise all exhibition scripts. Deliverables include fully bilingual (English and Irish/Gaeilge) printed and digital displays to ensure strict compliance with the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021, alongside a professionally recorded four-language self-guided audio tour delivered via both proprietary devices and web-hosted smartphone frameworks. Technological Integration: Procuring, programming, installing, and commissioning all multimedia and audio-visual (AV) elements. This includes immersive digital media treatments and a dedicated, high-capacity Digital Archive Explorer interactive kiosk. Physical Fit-Out, Enabling Works and Heating Upgrades: Managing the complete site preparation, including the safe demolition and lawful disposal off-site of legacy exhibition fixtures. Physical works include constructing agreed internal partition walls, executing all necessary first/second-fix electrical, and decorative trades, and installing a centralised ambient climate monitoring display (in reception area). The Service Provider must also supply and commission an active, humidity control solution (with a total prohibition on external stone wall penetrations) and supply and commission a modern, energy-efficient heating upgrade compliant with Regulation (EU) 2024/1103 for the exhibition space. Please note that all works, installations, and commissioning under this contract must be fully completed, validated, and handed over to the Contracting Authority by no later than 30th March 2027.