The Victoria and Albert Museum: Medieval and Renaissance Gallery
Architect: MUMA
Daylight Consultant and Environmental Engineer: Arup
Client: The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Location: Cromwell Road, London, England
Architect: MUMA uses light to open up communal spaces. Their use of daylight design is key to the atmosphere they want to convey in that space. Daylight captures the essence of certain materials in certain ways which can never be reproduced by artificial light. Using daylight is never dull or boring. MUMA have won a number of awards for this project including RIBA East Award(2018) and the Civic Trust for this project(39).
Daylight Consultant and Environmental Engineer: Arup believe in a sustainable, affordable, and accessible world. Each one of these factors are vital to their energy programmes. Due to the increase of urbanisation each factor must be carefully thought through. The industry is trying to expand the use of renewable energies. Sunlight is the perfect example. Sunlight is an energy free source of light. Arup uses its experience to improve the quality of energy infrastructure. It is key that their projects positively impact how we use our energy(40).
Location: London is eighteen metres above sea level giving it a warm and temperate climate. It experiences a continuous amount of rainfall throughout the year with the average annual rainfall at 621 millimetres. Due to the pollution of the city heavy rainfall is more common. The average annual temperature is 11.1 degree Celsius(41). London receives west to south westerly winds. Wind speed is affected by the mechanical, chemical, and thermal characteristics of the city. The temperature rises closer to the city centre with average difference of minimum temperatures between London and its surrounding area being 1.9 degree Celsius(42). London receives an annual average of four hours of sun per day. It has only 33.3% of good daylight with the other 67.7% often being cloudy or having low sun intensity(43).
Project: The Victoria and Albert Museum was designed to accentuate the importance of daylight in a museum. The aim, for this project, was to allow as much quality light. Direct sunlight might harm the exhibits. Light could be used as a tool to create a certain atmosphere around specific exhibits. It was important that the light cast on the exhibits was thoroughly thought through as different light levels can capture the essence of certain materials. The Medieval and Renaissance Galleries were originally designed by Aston Webb in 1909. They were arranged with three series of spaces over three levels. Two of these spaces have been placed on the ground and first floor by the south façade while the third, Gallery50, has been placed adjacent at ground floor. MUMA challenged the lack of internal spatial connections by joining the three series of spaces. Removing connecting stairs and delivery ramps meant that the outdoor area could now be used as an additional space for exhibits. A new set of stairs and lift now gave access to the six storeys of the museum. Muma wanted to change the rhythm and pace of the gallery in contrast to Webb’s changing scale of spaces. The galleries on the south façade faced problems with the intensity of the direct sunlight. The gallery’s roof had been fitted with reinforced wire glass cast with no means to offer protection against the sun(44).
Light and Design: Muma decided to develop the former light well into a daylit gallery. A glass roof has now been placed over the light well. This glass roof transmits as much visible light as possible without letting any UV radiation through. The glass beams are designed to access vertical views of the sky. The glass beams are opaque from oblique views (Fig 49)(45).
The newly developed gallery has been constructed into a U shape to allow a sufficient amount of light through. A rhythm of light and colour filled the elongated spaces of the south façade on both exhibition levels. However, at Gallery50, the light from the entrance in the west to the apse in the east becomes much more mild and less concentrated. This change of light intensity is a reaction to the exhibits on display (Fig50)(46). Gallery50 possesses light insensitive pieces of art as well as religious objects sensitive to light. Light was a key factor for the museum. Two specialists in light and design were commissioned for the project, DHA Design for artificial lighting and Arup for daylight design. It was a fundamental goal to illuminate the gallery with natural light as artificial light cannot reproduce the same quality. A 3D computer model of the exhibition spaces was created which allowed design decisions to be checked automatically. A 1:1 mock-up model was made to analyse daylight, materials, and wall colours. Daylight atmosphere and light sensitivity of individual exhibits were taken into account in every decision made. It was important that there was a balance of light in each space. The cumulative light exposure over the course of a year for each window was calculated. Here they discovered the annual exposure of each gallery space. This process was repeated until each room only received the permitted amount of daylight. This permissible light now had to be obtained using suitable windows, light diffusers, and shading elements. The balance of light had to be taken into account, keeping what was meant to be dark dark and what was meant to bright bright. It was decided that an automatically controlled system would be best to react to the natural variations of daylight. Venetian blinds were incorporated into the design along with adjusting louvres. These shading mechanisms can adjust in order to allow the correct amount of light through to the museum while protecting the exhibits from any direct light. A number of individual exhibits were moved after they discovered placing them further away from the window increased the quality and quantity of daylight. The Renaissance courtyard garden was designed to be engulfed with daylight while the east part, the church exhibits, were to experience a controlled light. Louvres were employed under the glass roof as an answer to reduce its daylight factor and its effect of glare. The use of louvres also prevents direct sunlight reaching the museums exhibits causing damage (Fig51)(47).
Despite the employment of these louvres, the gallery is still one of the brightest spaces in the museum. A skylight along the roof ridge has been incorporated in the east part of the gallery. This part of the gallery is 1/15 as bright as the west part. All panes of glass in the roof have been encased with light diffusing film which excludes UV radiation as well as varying the light transmission ratio from pane to pane(44).
Bibliography
39. Muma | Tag | ArchDaily [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/tag/muma
40. Energy - Arup [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://www.arup.com/expertise/industry/energy
41. London climate: Average Temperature, weather by month, London weather averages - Climate-Data.org [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom/england/london-1/
42. London - Climate | Britannica [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/place/London/Climate
43. Sunshine & Daylight Hours in London, England, Uk Sunlight, Cloud & Day length [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: http://www.london.climatemps.com/sunlight.php
44. Velux. Daylight and Architecture Magazine: New Eyes on Existing Buildings [Internet]. 2013 [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://velcdn.azureedge.net/-/media/com/daylight and architechture - doga/pdf/da19.pdf
45. Daylit Gallery [Internet]. Available from: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/daylit-gallery
46. Apse [Internet]. Available from: https://vaneporelmundo.com/tag/momias/
47. Louvres [Internet]. Available from: https://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/448
