Napoleon’s Final Residence Masterplan
Longwood, St Helena
A masterplan for heritage, tourism and landscape at Napoleon’s final residence. Connecting Bertrand’s Cottage, Deadwood Camp and the four-mile wall.
Napoleon’s Final Residence Masterplan Longwood, St Helena
Connecting Bertrand’s Cottage, Deadwood Camp and the four-mile wall.
The Longwood Hub is a strategic masterplan and museum concept developed by MWAI for the historic site of Napoleon Bonaparte’s final residence on the island of St Helena. Located in the remote South Atlantic, Longwood House is where Napoleon lived in exile from 1815 until his death in 1821.
MWAI’s proposal reimagines the surrounding landscape and buildings as a cultural destination, combining heritage conservation, tourism infrastructure and land art. The concept includes a new interpretation centre and physic garden on the footprint of Longwood New House, a building once intended for Napoleon but demolished in 1949. The four-mile wall that once defined the limits of Napoleon’s freedom is reinterpreted as a landscape installation, offering visitors a poetic experience of boundaries, surveillance and isolation.
The project is being developed in close consultation with Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, the Honorary French Consul on St Helena, and supported by the Saint Helena Heritage Society. It includes plans for a café, artisan workshops, visitor facilities and walking trails that connect the site to Bertrand’s Cottage, Deadwood Camp and the wider Napoleonic trail.
The Longwood Hub is a cultural and economic catalyst for the island, designed to honour its layered history while creating opportunities for education, tourism and local enterprise.
MWAI’s proposal reimagines the surrounding landscape and buildings as a cultural destination, combining heritage conservation, tourism infrastructure and land art. The concept includes a new interpretation centre and physic garden on the footprint of Longwood New House, a building once intended for Napoleon but demolished in 1949. The four-mile wall that once defined the limits of Napoleon’s freedom is reinterpreted as a landscape installation, offering visitors a poetic experience of boundaries, surveillance and isolation.
The project is being developed in close consultation with Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, the Honorary French Consul on St Helena, and supported by the Saint Helena Heritage Society. It includes plans for a café, artisan workshops, visitor facilities and walking trails that connect the site to Bertrand’s Cottage, Deadwood Camp and the wider Napoleonic trail.
The Longwood Hub is a cultural and economic catalyst for the island, designed to honour its layered history while creating opportunities for education, tourism and local enterprise.