Interview about National Gallery Athens Museum, winner of the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award 2022
In the 1960's modern building of the National Gallery in Athens, the exhibition rooms are designed like a promenade in open space. The interior is designed as a sequence of wooden lined transitional areas for information, and of white exhibition rooms with specially designed suspended ceilings for each exhibition function. Controlling the directions of gaze, the depth of view in the rooms and towards the city, the general lighting in relevance with the exterior light, and subduing the materials and the technical details to highlight the works of art, the space gives an affect of free choice.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsThe control of visitor gaze and movement patterns as design philosophy had evolved from the very beginning of the project. The exhibition panels in the middle of the space were placed facing the incoming visitor, and at the same time we let the gaze pass between them, allowing the perception of the entire exhibition hall to its end. Thus, there were no mandatory movements but an invitation to stroll. Also, these exhibition panels were placed in the middle of thematic areas, like islands, and they were always in different relationships with each other, creating perceptual differences in spatial and viewing conditions during the walk, keeping the interest in what would follow. In these free paths through spatial differences, the building's openings overlooking the city were another element that guided the desire to go on.
The control of visitor gaze and movement patterns as design philosophy had evolved from the very beginning of the project. The exhibition panels in the middle of the space were placed facing the incoming visitor, and at the same time we let the gaze pass between them, allowing the perception of the entire exhibition hall to its end. Thus, there were no mandatory movements but an invitation to stroll. Also, these exhibition panels were placed in the middle of thematic areas, like islands, and they were always in different relationships with each other, creating perceptual differences in spatial and viewing conditions during the walk, keeping the interest in what would follow. In these free paths through spatial differences, the building's openings overlooking the city were another element that guided the desire to go on.
From the beginning of the lighting design, the final result took into account the external light. On the one hand, there were films on the windows to control the amount of external light and, on the other hand, there were different scenarios for uniformly increasing or decreasing the intensity of the technical light depending on the time of day in different seasons. Also, in particularly sensitive areas affected by external light, there were translucent blinds, which were lowered and raised by a photocell depending on the intensity of the light. To all these lighting relationships, we can add the almost invisible sources of direct light. By hiding the light sources, we hide the cause of the lighting, and the space as well as the works of art seem to be self-illuminated.
To maintain the design integrity is the main task of the architect. Architectural design is based on a network of conceptual diagrams that describe spatial potentiality relationships. The design does not define a fixed spatial situation, but rather reveals the intended potential of the space. With this in mind, there is great flexibility in different and unexpected decisions to be made in phases of collaboration with other logics and interests. The strategy is always to keep each step of a redesign process on the paths of the network of the original conceptual spatial potentiality diagrams.
The minimalist material palette is a continuation of the "white cube" genealogy. The environment becomes as neutral as possible, it does not carry ready-made interpretative directions. It is a construction of a technical material environment, which does not intervene as a symbolic framework in the interpretation of the artwork, but helps to reveal the semantic sense of each artwork and the relationships between artworks in order their interpretation to be extracted.
The interactive digital information system is bult in the wooden walls that cover the wooden transitional areas before the entrance to the exhibition halls with the contemplative atmosphere for art appreciation. In this way before the invitation to stroll in the space of the white exhibition halls, there is an invitation to stroll in the digital space of art information.
The interactive digital information system is bult in the wooden walls that cover the wooden transitional areas before the entrance to the exhibition halls with the contemplative atmosphere for art appreciation. In this way before the invitation to stroll in the space of the white exhibition halls, there is an invitation to stroll in the digital space of art information.
The spaces for the permanent collection extend over three floors and for the temporary exhibitions extend over one and a half floors. Other spaces for visitors are the library, the indoor/outdoor café, the restaurant, the information entrance and the shop. All other spaces are for management and administration, workshops, training, storage. Thus, there are two different traffic flows, one for visitors and one for staff. The flow of traffic for visitors is well defined at the visitor entrance, dividing the flow into two directions, one towards the permanent collection and one towards the temporary exhibitions. In each direction the flow between the floors is continuous with stairs and lifts, supported by a signage system with diagrams for the visitor’s position in the building. Specifically in the permanent collection exhibition spaces the exhibition panels are oriented towards the visitor entering the hall, giving in each hall a sense of the direction of movement.
These 50 related projects are a collection of examples of dealing with the work of art on a bridge from modern, postmodern deconstruction and minimalism. The main experience that could be gained is the degree of relativity between the theorization of the work of art and the symbolic system of each era. And the design of the exhibition is a spatial representation of the continuous transformation of this relationship.
The design principles that represent the ideology of our time are: - The freedom of choice of gaze for a personalized interpretive association of works of art- the sense of interpretive relativity given by the perception that standing in front of a work of art is contained in a museum room, in a building, in a city,- the "shy" designed environment to minimize a given interpretive frame during the projection of the qualities of a work of art,. Perhaps tomorrow these principles will be expelled for the representative symbols of another ideology.
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