Daylight, architectural & exhibition lighting design for the 225,000sqf new museum situated in an archeological park at the base of the Acropolis in Athens. The new museum mainly accommodates ancient works from the Parthenon and the Acropolis rock. The museum opened to the public in June 2009.

 

The museum lighting is purposely not designed around the building itself, but the artefacts and the visitor’s museological experience. The focus is on the illumination of the sculptures in terms of modelling and display hierarchy. Light and shadow are choreographed to enhance the visitor’s experience, revealing the architectural form but focusing on the unique sculpture detailing. This is particularly evident on the Parthenon Gallery at the top, where lighting is used as a tool to differentiate the original parts of the Frieze from the man-made copies; this somehow accentuates the absence of the frieze pieces missing.

 

The Acropolis Museum is predominately a daylight museum, with the majority of artefacts experienced during the day. The main purpose of the daylight design is to showcase the archaic monuments as they were meant to be seen, in situ on the Acropolis rock under the Athenian sun. During the day carefully filtered daylight through fritted glass, louvers, skylights etc. is introduced while layers of architectural lighting play a complimentary role into navigating the visitor. Depending on the artefact type, the daylight is treated to either soften or accentuate the modeling effect of the sculptures.

 

In the evening the lit effect is more dramatic. A layering of architectural lighting effects enlivens the sculptures, while the rest of the space is darker borrowing reflected light from the lit artefacts. The museum becomes a huge display case of jewels lit from with in, inviting and yet distant. This jewel case lit effect is particularly evident at the Parthenon Gallery. As it gets dark, even after the museum is closed, the lit Friezes and Metopes have a strong night-time presence.