Description
In addition to preserving artworks or historical documents of all kinds, museums have to make their collections accessible to a wide audience, be informative, provide continuing education, set values, or quite simply provide pleasure. The preservation of artworks and collectors’ pieces serves in the first instance to secure them from theft and wanton damage or destruction. However, this security can be assured by technical means only to a certain extent; if wanton damage is to be avoided, surveillance of the rooms by guards is indispensable, particularly in the case of picture galleries. For technical security measures to counter theft, insurance company requirements must be adhered to.
To ensure the preservation of collectors’ pieces, a variety of climatic requirements based on the sensitivity of the objects has been scientifically determined to a large extent. If in the past it was primarily expensive air-conditioning systems that provided not only air circulation, but also air exchange, humidification, and dehumidification as well as heating and cooling, in recent years, systems have been developed that reduce the exchange of air to an absolute minimum and provide stationary heating and cooling, where possible in walls and ceilings capable of storage, by means of what is referred to as tempering of the external skin. These systems, which are still at the developmental stage, lead not only to substantial cost-savings in investment and operating costs, but can also be realized with significantly reduced effort and expense in terms of building, because the necessary dimensions of the ventilation facilities can be substantially reduced.
If the two aspects mentioned above serve primarily for the preservation of the objects to be exhibited, the third aspect, exposure to light and lighting, exerts a significant influence on the quality of the exhibition and on the quality of the rooms. Although the amount of daylight and artificial light has an effect on the preservation of the majority of exhibition objects, the most important task is to show the objects on display in the best light and present them appropriately.
Exposure to light and the lighting are factors that also have a very significant influence on the quality of the space, the quality of the presentation of the objects exhibited and on the museum’s ability to draw visitors. From a purely functional viewpoint, it is primarily a matter of presenting the exhibition objects with the help of light to visitors so that they can observe them without being disturbed by glare, reflection or distortion, etc., and in so doing, recognize their essential features and their effect in detail.
This rule – which can be applied not only to the exposure to light and the lighting, but also to the total spatial design of museums – is certainly thrown into question by buildings such as Frank Gehry’s in Bilbao or Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin. The main attraction for visitors is no longer the objects on exhibition, at least no longer only the objects on exhibition, but the buildings themselves; their spatial effects form the principal attraction and draw visitors in quantities that most museum directors can only dream of. The fact that in such museums, the function of the exposure and the lighting is primarily to place the architecture and its spatial effects in the right light is self-evident. The presentation of the objects on exhibition becomes a secondary issue, becomes in best cases a Gesamtkunstwerk in combination with the building, or in less fortunate cases, may even have a detrimental effect on the building’s spatial qualities.
Nonetheless, first and foremost, the exposure and the lighting should ensure optimum presentation of the objects on exhibition. In addition to this, there are aspects like visitor orientation, possibly by including exterior space or relaxation areas in order to reduce fatigue. Also in the interest of best presenting the artworks, creating a connection between inside and outside space is extraordinarily effective – and makes a vivid impression on visitors, as with Giocometti’s sculptures in the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, the Maeght Gallery or in the Fondation Beyeler.
Daylighting in measured quantities still plays an important role in the building of museums. Newer technologies for adjusting the quantities of light, directional lighting, and the almost imperceptible supporting or replacement of it by artificial light has become more and more important. The conventional illuminated ceiling still has a role to play, but other options too have proved their worth. Moreover, the colours of the light, the background, its surface and colours play a significant part. Also, the transition between rooms with different light intensities, such as from daylight to subdued light, is an important aspect – for example, for graphics – that has to be taken into account when building a museum.
Securing exhibits against theft, wanton destruction and destruction, through detrimental climatic conditions or wrongly adjusted light are necessary evils that should be dealt with as far as possible without causing negative spatial effects. As service functions, these aspects are best resolved when they do not make themselves felt at all.
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Originally published in: Paul von Naredi-Rainer, Museum Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.