‘Skin & Bones’ Exhibition, London, UK

dpa lighting design were appointed to design the lighting for the exhibition “Skin & Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture”, which was the first of a series of temporary exhibitions launching the new riverside Embankment Galleries at Somerset House in London.

“Skin & Bones” occupied two floors of this non-daylit gallery with a single height entrance/ introduction area below mezzanine, leading into a double height volume with glass staircase connected to the mezzanine level above. The gallery is Grade 1 listed, which greatly influenced the overall exhibition design. 

The lighting was designed in close collaboration with Eva Jiricna Architects and the curators at Somerset House to fit within the physical constraints of the gallery space and blend in with the new temporary structures of the exhibition.

In the double height space, a low voltage catenary wire system was installed to illuminate the seating area and exhibits.

Above mezzanine it was not possible to attach luminaires to the vaulted ceiling of the gallery. We therefore decided to light all of the exhibits located on the central plinth using flush adjustable low voltage uplights.

Fluorescent uplights were concealed within the top of the curved central screen, which divided the gallery into two parts, to softly illuminate the vaulted ceiling.

Client: Somerset House Trust
Architect: Eva Jiricna Architects
Exhibition fitout: DHA
Art direction: Multistorey

 

The Queen’s Hats & Handbags Exhibition, London, UK

This was a temporary exhibition bringing together all the Queen’s hats and handbags that Her Majesty had used in public engagements since her coronation. It was the first and only time that this collection was seen together. Architect William Russell won the competition to design the exhibition and our dpa London studio worked closely to integrate lighting into the concept. Of great importance was conservation of the exhibits and so conservation levels of illumination, less than 50 lux, had to be designed in. Further to this the lighting solution incorporated fibre-optics to eliminate heat and UV from the displays. One very interesting feature was the central display in a large glass display case where a carpet of hats are displayed as if flowers in a meadow. Each hat is on its own stem stand which slowly rotates with a motor below the floor. Each hat is modelled with two small fibre-optic heads per hat with light sources again below the raised floor.