Interpretation

The design of the British Galleries by Casson Mann is the result of five intense years of work. Dinah Casson describes the project.

When we were appointed in 1996, by the then Director Alan Borg, the museum had already been working on the project for some time and some of the fundamental decisions had already been made.

These were:

• the principle of retaining chronology as a basic organisational principle

• the idea of a number of themes (three were later to become four) to which the ninety or so topics could be connected

• the commitment to interpretative devices throughout the displays which would be designed to appeal to visitors with different learning preferences

Casson Mann’s first job was to begin to understand the collection and the curator’s thinking behind their selection. This became a process of discussion that continued well after the project was on site. Sketches and sketch models were essential tools for this process which culminated in a 1.25 model of the whole project. During this time, displays were omitted, new ones were created, and objects were moved around. Our priority during this period was to create a journey through the galleries which would be full of surprises, delights, places to rest, changes in rhythm, changes in texture. This entailed the cutting and pasting of many, many ideas and some ruthless editing, a process which became increasingly painful as time went on.

The British Galleries display 2,800 objects. With the new environmental conditions, paintings, drawings and prints can now be displayed alongside costume, textiles, furniture, glass, ceramics and fine art together with five complete period rooms.

Our joint aim was a search for maximum clarity, but as the range of visitors to the museum varies widely, from highly informed researchers to overseas visitors (currently representing about 50%) with little or no knowledge of British history or culture, much of this was going to have to be communicated through arrangement rather than through text.

Parallel to the work on content was the development of the display systems in the galleries. Aston Webb had given us a set of galleries with glorious natural light streaming in from one side – much of which had to be screened off because of the delicate nature of most of the objects.

This was achieved with a series of window screens which allow the visitor retain orientating glimpses of the outside world. Much of the lighting and security systems are carried on a raft at high level positioned to allow views of the original gallery ceilings. The lighting, designed by Richard Aldridge, is predominantly fibre optic, not only in the display cases, but also for the open displays.

The 168 display cases were designed with Goppion in Milan. Seven ‘families’ of cases were developed in two and half years, six of which offer 100% access to the object installers. Designed to the highest of conservation specifications, the cases vary in size from .3m x .4m to 2.8m x 3.5m and their quality was crucial to the look of the galleries.
The graphics, by Rose-Innes Associates, like the display cases, are quiet and supportive to the objects in spite of the quantity of words (50 per object.)

Concurrent with our appointment was that of GA Associates as architects, whose task it was to give the galleries the environmental conditions that would allow the rich mix of objects. Their task was also to introduce two new lifts and two new sets of lavatories into the galleries.
David Mlinaric with his team consisting of John Cornforth, John Harris and Christopher Gibbs, was also appointed to work on the restoration and presentation of the period rooms and to advise on historical issues.

Our ambition was for the regular visitor to come away feeling that they had seen things as if for the first time, and for new visitors to come away feeling that they wanted to return. We designed the galleries to be friendly and to put visitors at their ease: the objects are overwhelming in their scale, richness and quantity and we felt that it was important that the design acted as an invisible guide, gently encouraging and sympathetic to indigestion. Visiting these galleries is, after all, like a huge banquet and whilst the overall spectacle can be enjoyed in one bite, the detail has to taken in self-selected small mouthfuls.