A giant eight-metre head gazes over one of the galleries at the new Being Brunel museum in Bristol. Complete with stovepipe hat and ubiquitous cigar, it’s a fitting image of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a man whose grand ambitions encapsulated the Victorian era and whose mind and extraordinary achievements are celebrated at this immersive attraction.

The £7.2 million opening on Bristol harbourside is housed in a reconstruction of an 1840s store house and lies hard by one of Brunel’s greatest creations – the now beautifully restored SS Great Britain. It boasts an interior recalling the look of the 1851 Great Exhibition, for which Brunel was on the design committee.

The aim of Being Brunel is to evoke the sense of wonder and invention associated with this brilliant engineer – “the man who built modern Britain” – but also to discover what made him so good, the mistakes he made and how his work is interpreted today.

One of the cigars Brunel used to fuel his 48 a day habit Credit: Copyright of Adrian Brooks / Imagewise. Photo credit must read: Adrian Brooks/Imagewise/Adrian Brooks / Imagewise

Walking around these imaginatively crafted spaces you soon understand why Brunel was second only to Churchill in the BBC’s 2002 series on 100 Greatest Britons. The breadth of his achievements is vast, from railways and ships (he had visions of a seamless journey from London to New York) to bridges, tunnels and stations.

The museum comprises various rooms that touch on his world, beginning with a recreation of the dining room at his home in London’s Duke Street. The walls depict paintings commissioned by Brunel of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays (he was a big admirer); the room was where Brunel and his wife, Mary, entertained family, friends and influential acquaintances who could help Brunel get his projects off the ground. “Talking” family heads give further insights into the man, while one of the most telling exhibits is an almost perfect drawing of a rocking horse done by Brunel when his was just six years old.

Evident too is Brunel’s relationship with his hugely influential, French-born engineer father Marc and his early desire to be the leading creator of his generation.

Other rooms tackle his numerous projects, entrepreneurial capabilities and, importantly, his skill as artistic designer. There are links to the hugely ambitious Thames Tunnel (which Isambard engineered with his father) to his design for a new wider railway gauge to make train travel less shaky. Brunel’s frustration that the rattling steam engines obstructed his famed ability to draw a perfect circle fuelled his determination that his Great Western Railway project would offer a smoother ride. One interactive exhibit allows visitors to try and draw on a circle on a rocking carriage.

The classic shot of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Credit: Getty

And then dominating everything is that huge head which visitors can enter for an audio-visual experience that offers an imagined interpretation of Brunel’s mind - what he was seeing and thinking at certain times.

Elsewhere there are designs for the beautiful Egyptian-influenced Clifton Suspension Bridge, the SS Great Britain (highlighting why a late decision over how it was propelled prompted a row with investors) and, his final project, The Great Eastern (one of its funnels is on display). All are detailed and chronicled at the museum that also incorporates the structurally restored Great Western Steamship Company’s dock office in Bristol where Brunel once worked.

A sketchbook on display at Being Brunel Credit: Copyright of Adrian Brooks / Imagewise. Photo credit must read: Adrian Brooks/Imagewise/Adrian Brooks / Imagewise

Equally intriguing though is the section on Brunel the Celebrity. By the 1850s he was a star and the British public were fascinated by him and his projects; newspapers reported every detail of his work and thousands of souvenirs, some on display here, were produced to commemorate his works.

Part genius part showman, Brunel would work 20 hours a day and smoke 48 cigars (his daily cigar box is on display), while further insights come from his technical instruments, note- and sketchbooks and private diaries. In almost illegible handwriting, these reveal his ambitions, dreams, self-belief and can-do spirit (nil disperandum was his motto), but also his doubts and fears. One entry says: “I am always building castles in the air, what time I waste.”

He also seemed to become much tougher emotionally. The loss of 100 men during the building of Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway was regarded as a “small list considering the very heavy works and the immense of (gun)powder used.”

At the museum’s entrance is the defining image of the man as Brunel poses in front of the immense chains of the Great Eastern. It is a snapshot of the Industrial Revolution and a diminutive genius with a huge legacy. Architect Norman Foster suggests of Brunel (in a quote at the museum): “[He] believed in the future and who saw technology in a tradition of making that future better.”

Being Brunel (ssgreatbritain.org/about-us/being-brunel) opens on March 23; adults £16.50; children (5-16) £9.50.