Architect Wilkinson Eyre is to enclose the Mary Rose warship in Portsmouth in a concrete shell roof measuring 80 脳 34 m.

The cover, prefabricated as a single piece, will cover a 拢23m museum building designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and structural and services Gifford.

The challenge will be to build around a plastic temporary enclosure in which the surviving half of the warship's timber hull is being continually sprayed with a preservative solution.

In Wilkinson Eyre's design a "virtual hull" of cast glass will sit alongside the real hull, housing many of the 19,000 items of the ship's contents, including cannon, long bows, pewter plates and surgeon's implements. A central gangway on each floor will allow visitors to view the hull remains on one side and its excavated contents on the other.

A virtual hull will house cannon, long bows, pewter and surgeon鈥檚 implements

Chris Wilkinson, director of Wilkinson Eyre, said the building evokes an oyster shell or jewellery casket with a low roof in deference to Nelson flagship Victory berthed alongside it.

Pringle Brandon is the interior architect, Davis Langdon the and quantity surveyor and Land Design Studio the exhibition designer.