With the rediscovered storehouse as their inspiration, the Imagination designers began to think about doing more than just creating a replacement visitor centre.
They envisaged an integrated community and business space that would reflect the needs of visitors, Dubliners and Guinness employees. The plan was radical: close the Hopstore, redevelop the storehouse and create an entirely new concept in branded attractions.
‘This was about cultural citizenship, not corporate cathedrals,’ says Ralph Ardill. ‘It wasn’t going to be a branded visitor centre that says, “This is our world - we tell you our story: you buy our product.” This was going to be the home of Guinness, a multi-dimensional, multi-use space for young consumers, Guinness employees, Diageo employees and Dubliners as well as for tourists.’
The plan represented a significant departure from what Guinness had originally envisaged, and this demanded some persuasion on the part of the Imagination team, and more than a little open mindedness from Guinness.
‘When we went into the meeting to present our ideas about what to do with the Hopstore and said, “We think you should close it,” people started getting a bit uncomfortable,’ recalls Ardill. ‘We knew they couldn’t sanction the sort of spend that such a large-scale project would demand, so all we asked was that they didn’t say no, so it could go to the next level.’
Nine months of research followed, with more and more people becoming involved. Ardill thinks this was one of the secrets of the project’s success – it meant that more people developed a sense of ownership of the project, so that it almost gathered its own momentum. Or, as Philip Osbourne puts it, ‘People were extremely passionate about this project, they really felt it in their waters.’ Guinness, Ardill says, ‘was an incredibly brave client. The idea of putting a bar on the roof in the middle of the brewery, for example, at a time when Guinness was closing factories, needed an enormous amount of sensitivity.’
‘Happily there was commitment from the very top level of the board,’ says Clive Brownlee, Assistant Managing Director of Diageo Ireland during the project, ‘and that commitment remained rock solid. So while we had some challenges to it, we were able to defend it with the confidence and enthusiasm that was needed.’
