Daylight as a design element: an analysis of three different inspiring museums that design with daylight
B.I. Sora (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
John Hanna – Mentor (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
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Abstract
This paper analyses the use of natural light as a design element in museums. While the design of natural light is important for all types of buildings, it takes additional layers of complexity in museum buildings and exhibition spaces. Due to the need to preserve the artwork, museums tend to become black boxes, with no interaction with the outside. Even so, there are numerous architects who have designed museum spaces that make use of natural light in incredible ways. This paper wishes to look into different ways in which natural light has been used in museums, what is its role, how it interacts with the exhibition, how was it implemented, etc. To do so, it combines a literature review of architecture books and articles with image analyses of sketches and photographs of three museums chosen as case studies: the Aalborg Art Museum by Alvar Aalto, the Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind, and the Museum of contemporary art in Herning by Steven Holl Architects.