The Museum of Costal Defences (Lei Yue Mun Museum) in Hong Kong has a central courtyard surrounded by a series of casemates (vaulted chambers) constructed in the ramparts of this former British fort. The courtyard has a translucent membrane structure which was developed with dpa to assess the impact of daylight into the space and more importantly, into the casemates which contain light sensitive artefacts. dpa developed with the exhibition designer a concept to limit the amount of light that passed into each casemate. This was achieved by the introduction of a simple divide at the entrance of each casemate.

Within each vaulted casemate are housed a number of display cases and stand alone artefacts that are accented with low voltage track lighting and integral fibre optic lighting to the displays where fragile and fugitive artefacts are exhibited.

Client: Museum of Coastal Defence
Architect: John Dangerfield