Sainsbury's Virtual Museum has been
designed as a 'real' building which would actually be capable of construction in real life.
Its design includes references to the grandiose buildings associated with museums as well as
to retail architecture.
The best modern retail architecture recognises that the supermarket is a public building which
requires architectural elements of a large scale. This is most evident in the front elevation
of these buildings, where the canopy is the main feature highlighting the entrance. Hence in
the Virtual Museum, we find a mansard roof, tall columns clad in red brick with stone bases
and a canopy over the entrance. There are also references to early Sainsbury's shopfronts,
for example in the wrought ironwork above the door and in the domestic windows of the original
accommodation above the shop.
The Sainsbury's Archive logo can be found on a plaque above the front entrance.
