Universal Design Studio designed the temporary exhibition architecture to guide visitors around the stunning photographic images. The Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibition celebrates the beauty, drama and infinite variety of the natural world in this annual photography competition and exhibition, housed in the large Waterhouse galleries of the Natural History Museum.

Large exhibition panels are staggered along the main corridor creating full height entrances opening onto smaller gallery-like pavilion spaces. By using an aluminium framework and light scrim material panels, Universal creates an experience of shifting transparency and opacity, shadow and light, to poetically reinforce the photographic contents on show. The framework used in the exhibition is a flexible, modular system that can be re-used and re-aligned for future exhibitions, and was previously used for WPY 2010.

Each individual photograph is displayed on a custom-designed light panel, allowing the viewer to fully appreciate every minute detail within each image. An open cinema space defined by a lowered ceiling creates an intimate and immersive environment, and completes the exhibition experience.