dpa are immensely proud and thrilled to be associated with the Louvre as their local design lighting specialist tasked with assisting the museum when new and existing exhibitions are changed or rotated to ensure the strict criteria for lighting to the artworks, many of which are priceless, are maintained and preserved for future enjoyment. Having opened in 2007, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is firmly recognised as one of the region’s most respected art museums and continually delights visitors with its collection of permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Client: Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi
Architect: John Nouvel
Photography: Louvre Abu Dhabi

dpa are immensely proud to have been invited to design the lighting for the newest gallery space in Alserkal Avenue Dubai.

Ishara Art Foundation is a non-profit contemporary art space centred on South Asia, established by Smita Prabhakar, collector and UAE resident and curated by specialist in South Asian art, Nada Raza. The current exhibition, Altered Inheritances, is a collection of work form artist Shilpa Gupta and Zarina.

dpa worked closely with the foundation team and architect Rahoul Sing from RLDA Architecture to conceptualise and develop a flexible and modern lighting scheme for the two floors of the gallery. As the art pieces and gallery layout will change from time to time, the lighting needed to be flexible in design to allow for all eventualities yet at the same time be uncluttered, elegant and identifiably different from other galleries. A carefully considered arrangement of recessed track under the mezzanine level allows for multiple luminaire mounting positions together with versatile spotlights with interchangeable lenses so that every art piece can be correctly addressed. For the atrium space the ambient and iconic lighting is created by 3 diminishing custom made squares suspended from the structural ceiling. Each square is an unbroken line of light with the ability to hold any configuration of spotlights, all independently controlled.

Architect: Rahoul Singh, RLDA Architecture
Photography: Photographer Ismail Noor/Seeing Things. Images courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation 2019.

dpa lighting consultants worked in collaboration with the office of renowned architect Eva Jiřičná to create the Tiffany Gallery for the redesigned Luce Center on the fourth floor of the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.

dpa also worked closely with the New-York Historical Society on this project. Specifically the brief required the creation of a spectacular, custom-designed glass gallery showcasing the Museum’s preeminent collection of Tiffany lamps. The gallery of Tiffany lamps, comprises a 4,800-square-foot, two-story space measuring nearly a city block with its elegant glass Norman S. Benzaquen Grand Staircase.  As the centerpiece of the fourth floor, the gallery features 100 illuminated Tiffany lamps from New-York Historical’s collection displayed within a dramatically lit jewel-like space that visitors can access through the Geduld Family Gateways.  The project was inspired by New-York Historical’s discovery of the unknown story of Clara Driscoll and the “Tiffany Girls,” who designed and created iconic Tiffany lamps at the turn of the 20th century, many of which are in the Museum’s collection.

“The reopening of our Henry Luce III Center on the fourth floor of our landmark building marks a new and dramatic phase in the evolution of New-York Historical as one of the great showcases for architectural innovation in New York with, among other spectacular features, a bi-level glass Tiffany lamp gallery that is a major feat of design and engineering,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society.

Nick Hoggett, Partner at dpa lighting consultants and lead on the project adds: “It was a wonderful project to be part of, the technical challenges of showcasing lamps that are over 100 years old in some cases, with contemporary context and techniques, was one we relished.  The Tiffany Girls remain an inspiration to all of us interested in light.”

The glass stair underwent considerable design input by all concerned, dpa and EJA carried out numerous studies and mock-ups, which has culminated in the carefully integrated linear LED lighting elements to the stair treads and supporting fins. A cool crisp white light was chosen so as to complement the glass structure whilst also complementing the warm white light used within the Tiffany lamps and elsewhere within the gallery space.

Eva Jiricna Architects designed special curved glass showcases to house part of the Tiffany collection and perimeter glass showcases for the remainder of the various Tiffany lamps that are now on show. Artificial lighting has been carefully coordinated within the showcases with a combination of fibre optic spotlights and various LED sources.

The lamping of the Tiffany lamps themselves raised some interesting philosophical questions which were debated with the curatorial team at the museum and internally at dpa. One key question was whether the lamps used should provide an accurate representation of the tungsten lamps used historically or whether the visual impact of the Tiffany lamps was the most important factor. After much debate and trialling of numerous retrofit LED lamps, a palette of high CRI ‘filament style’ LED lamps was settled upon which paid respect to tungsten sources in terms of look, colour temperature and colour rendering but offered the energy savings of LED and reduced the heat build-up within the display cases. Another question included whether specific lamps should be provided with additional illumination to further reveal and highlight the craftsmanship and decoration of their bases. Several mock-ups were carried out using fibre optic sources but it was eventually decided that the lighting of the bases should reflect how they were presented historically using the spill light from the shades above.

Whilst the glass staircase and Tiffany lamps themselves are the star attractions in the gallery, the lighting design challenges also included the integration of illumination to non-self-illuminated exhibits and also the descriptive texts and graphics within the gallery. dpa worked closely with the architects and the display case suppliers to integrate and conceal lighting within the cases and again mock-ups proved an invaluable tool in the testing and refining stages of the casework development.

Whilst the Tiffany gallery predominantly provides a stunning space within which to display the Tiffany lamps and present their history, the gallery can also be used by the museum to host special events. In order to respond to this additional requirement, the coves which are ordinarily lit in blue to reveal the barrel vault ceiling can be set to differing hues and brightness via a DMX system to set a more celebratory tone within the gallery.

Rounding off the floor, the Robert H. Smith Family Skylight Gallery designed by Eva Jiricna Architects provides visitors an airy, sun-soaked lounge space where they can reflect on their experience beneath a historic skylight that was part of the building’s original construction, restored with the generous support of American Express.

Client: New-York Historical Society
Architect: Eva Jiricna Architects
Local Architect: PBDW Architects
Structural Designer for Staircase: GL&SS Consulting Engineers
Lighting Control Systems and Integration: Westview Productions
M&E Consultant: ads Engineers
Photography: Corrado Serra and Jon Wallen

The Guildhall art Gallery has undergone a major lighting replacement project in conjunction with a transformational rehang for the first time in 15 years. Many of the works have never been on show before. In the Victorian display alone, 70% of works represent a completely new curatorial selection; through imaginative use of space, the overall number of paintings on show has been doubled. Visitor numbers have also tripled in the weeks following the galleries reopening.

The Guildhall Art gallery designed by Richard Gilbert Scott and completed in the late 1990’s.  Designed to house the City of London’s art collection of over 4500 works dating back over 400 years. The gallery lighting was originally based around backlit tented ceilings with perimeter coves and further adjustable downlights around the perimeter of the tented ceilings. Unfortunately after a decade and half of operation there were several major issues with the lighting of the gallery. The lighting replacement project was originally conceived as a maintenance project to replace the obsolete main dimming fluorescent lighting and reduce the lamp replacement cycle.  Following European regulation changes, replacement mains dimming fluorescent ballasts were no longer available, which resulted in dark areas in the tented ceilings where the ballasts had failed and could not be replaced. Added to this there was a lamp replacements maintenance cycle of 2-3 years with an associated cost of £50,000.00 to remove and refit the tented ceilings.

The site review revealed a further issue with the lighting levels within the gallery. Our measurements showed the light levels were higher in the centre of the gallery with an average of 300 lux than on the artwork where, in places, it dropped below 70 lux rendering the artwork underlit and creating a dull, low-contrast environment within the gallery.  Part of the issue was due to the downlights being located too far from the artwork as well as the inability to adjust the lighting sufficiently to illuminate the artwork.

The dpa lighting concept for the gallery involved a complete rethink of the gallery lighting concept.  The perimeter coves were removed to reduce the visible brightness of the ceiling as these had previously been the brightest point in the gallery.  The downlights were removed and replaced by track and spot LEDs luminaires giving greater flexibility and allowing all the artworks to be correctly illuminated.  The tented ceilings were then replaced with a flat stretched fabric ceiling to give the gallery a cleaner more modern aesthetic allowing the focus to be on the artwork and reducing replacement costs.  In addition to the new lighting a DALi based dimming system was installed allowing the curators the option of controlling individual luminaires and thus the ability to create a lighting scene tailored to each individual artwork. The LED luminaires were also carefully selected for both their efficiency and long life.  The track mounted spot lights have a LM70 of 200,000 hrs and the linear LEDs behind the stretched ceilings have a LM70 of 50,000 hrs.  However to achieve the correct lighting level of 250-300 lux on the artwork and 100 lux general ambient lighting the linear LEDs are dimmed to 15% significantly under running the LEDs further extending their life.  The estimated maintenance cycle being reduce to 11 yrs and energy cost reduced by £14,000.00 annually.

The Dairy Art Centre is so called because it is in fact the conversion of a very old dairy in the heart of Bloomsbury in London which has lain empty for a number of years despite its prime site. Planning has been approved to turn the site into apartments but until then it has become a contemporary art gallery open to the public with free access. It is also available for special events and private functions. Due to its temporary nature there was minimum intervention to the architecture but sufficient to be able to present well artworks of all sizes and forms including an external courtyard for culture. There are a number of internal rooms which can have either daylight contribution or no daylight.

The lighting solutions were deliberately ‘economic’ utilising fluorescent battens to provide general white light with high colour rendering light sources. Additional battens mounted to the tops of roof trusses provide uplight to the open pitched roof ceilings. The external courtyard has a series of external spotlights mounted to the building. Through a simple switching arrangement different levels of illuminance can be achieved depending on the art and artist’s requirements.

Client: Frank Cohen / Nicolai Frahm
Project Manager: W.P.G
Architect: Studio Jenny Jones
Structural Engineering: Holt + Wotton
Conservation Engineering: Hayes and Adcock
Branding: North