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Museum Lighting Museum Lighting
This is a three part lecture on aspects of museum lighting originally given to a members of FORUM
FOR EXHIBITORS in Norrkoping, Sweden.
Lecture 1: Museum Lighting Philosophy
Lecture 2: Daylight in Museums
Lecture 3: Articial Lighting in Museums

Lecture 1: Museum Lighting Philosophy
Our approach to lighting museums is one of embracing light and moulding it to meet the appar-
ently conicting requirements inherent in the museum environment. Light is on one hand a de-
structive force and thus conicts with the museums role in preserving our heritage on the other it
is essential to vision, the principal means of communicating the information held within and around
the objects in the museumÿs collection, it is a key element in providing a context in time and space
for the museum visitor, in an architectural sense as well as the relationship with the collection and
it provides a key interpretive tool to extend the possibilities in communication.
All these elements are brought to a balance in the different projects I will be showing you. It is
naturally difcult to isolate these aspects as they are so interrelated however I will try to describe
how these different aspects come together in the results illustrated for each project.
St Mungoÿs Museum of Religious Life and Art, Glasgow. This project was developed as a change of
use for an existing building which had originally bee designed as a visitor centre and meeting place
for the adjacent Glasgow Cathedral. The building shell was complete when Architects Page + Park
designed the t out as a museum. The building included large areas of glazing to East and West in
the principal space which were used to display part of the Cities collection of stained glass. Gener-
ally the windows in the upper oors of the building had been designed to offer key views of the
Cathedral and its surroundings which are relevant to the Museumÿs didactic role and therefore
essential to retain. In this case much consideration was given to means of controlling the daylight
while retaining the spatial quality, views and opportunities for the display of glass.
Working closely with the architect, curator and conservators we developed an approach which
allows daylight to retain a limited role in lighting but allow the views and display of glass. All the
windows in the museum area are covered with neutral density window lm providing an 80% re-
duction in light transmission. By treating all the windows and approaching the treated spaces
through a staircase that is totally articially lit visitors are unaware that the windows are anything
other than clear. The next stage in the design was to ensure that direct sunlight could not fall on
light sensitive objects. Working with the architects and curators displays were arranged with walls
backing onto the windows providing large areas of shade within the galleries, The nal piece of the
jigsaw was the addition of controlled uorescent light to the coffers adjacent to the windows al-
lowing the surfaces here to appear to be lit by the windows completing the illusion that there is much more daylight in the space than is actually present.
Another challenge frequently presented is the display of small objects in desk cases. Here there are
duel problems of shadowing by the viewer as they attempt to get as close as possible to the ob-
jects to see ne detail and veiling reections of light ttings in the case surface. The solution here
was again dependent on close cooperation with the architect and curator, we designed a coffer
detail to provide a very large area of light which provides extremely even lighting over the wall and
case surface. As the area of light is so large there is no visible shadowing even when your face is
almost touching the glass case and the even, relatively low intensity of the light does not create
veiling reections in the case surface.
Finally in St. Mungoÿs, the curators were keen to create a contextually sensitive display for this
large statue of Shiva, the Hindu God. Traditionally this is displayed lit by multi amed oil lamps
which create advancing shadow making the statue appear be alive. To simulate this effect we de-
signed a simple effect light using two dichroic lamps a clock motor and a disk of obscuring glass
two of which were xed in the ceiling above the statue.
St Mungoÿs represents a traditional museum environment with a typical mixed collection. In recent
years the growing interest in industrial archeology and social history has lead to the development
of industrial museums often within existing historic industrial buildings. Verdant Works in Dundee is
a typical example of this type of project. The buildings are a typical jute mill of the late Victorian
period and contain a surviving Victorian ofce for which we reproduced simple lamp shades from
an example found on site and use period carbon lament lamps to accurately reproduce the light-
ing as it was at the turn of the century. This research into lighting history is also a key task for the
lighting designer. There is considerable recorded history for decorative lighting available however
practical industrial and domestic lighting is generally poorly recorded but can produce some inter-
esting discoveries in the way light has been used.
The remaining buildings are being developed to explore the industrial history of Dundee, the rst
phase exploring the Jute processing industry and second the social aspects of the early part of the
20th Century. Displays include thematic and interpretive elements, and computer interactives. The
museum also have a collection of working jute machinery which forms the key exhibit area within
the museum. This is housed in one of the best preserved areas of the old building with original roof
and skylights. The objects here are not light sensitive and are working machinery so consideration
of lighting is somewhat different from more conventional museums.
Our aims here were to express the strong sculptural forms of the machinery while highlighting the
signicant functional elements particularly where they are normally in shadow. The principal lights
are set below the walkway and positioned specically to create distinct shadows. As there is a sig-
nicant and changing level of daylight we developed a control strategy to maintain shadows basi-
cally we reversed the logic of a control system to increase the intensity of the display lighting as
the daylight levels increase thereby retaining strength in the shadows. When the machines are op-
erated it is necessary to switch off any of the low level lighting that causes glare at a particular ma-
chine for safety reasons, again this facility was incorporated within the control system. At night the
extremely dramatic lighting state is used for storytelling events. The principal controlled lighting
uses high efciency Tungsten Halogen sources, the large graphic banners are lit with Theatre pro-
les modied to take Metal Halide lamps for energy efciency and long life.
The River and Rowing Museum in Henley of Thame is set in a modern award winning building be
David Chippereld. The building was completed before the exhibition philosophy was nalised and
the collection brought together therefore the exhibition designers, Land Design Studios devised interpretation and display strategies that related to the building. Our concerns included integrating
lighting with display elements rather than impose separate elements on the architecture. We also
sought opportunities to use light to bring the objects and architecture together. In the rowing gal-
lery, which explores the development of rowing as a sport, the principal exhibits are the collection
of boats suspended in the space. The ns designed by Land provide suspension points independent
of the building and we also use these n element to provide lighting positions for the boats which
are used not only to light the boats but to create layers of shadows of the hulls on the opposite
ceiling.
In the Thames gallery the river is explored from source to the sea. Each display unit carries integral
lighting, including Fibre Optics for cases and coloured uorescent to animate the glass panel struc-
ture. Although not clear in the photograph each unit also carries a ripple effect light casting moving
watery patterns on the ceiling. Both the galleries have a xed louvre system controlling light from
the ov