This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
124 TECHNOLOGY / CASE STUDY NATURE’S BOUNTY


The Nature Library in Manchester Museum is one of the jewels in the city’s cultural crown. Recently refurbished, lighting consultant Studio ZNA chose Precision Lighting products to light the historic space.


Photographs: David Lambert/Studio ZNA


The Victorian era interior of the Manchester Museum brings to mind a bygone era of adventure and scientific discovery. The recently refurbished gallery at Manchester Museum showcases a huge collection of preserved animals, plants and fossils, specimens gathered over 200 years of exploration and research. Lighting consultant Studio ZNA chose Precision Lighting Pico 1 spotlights to illuminate the Grade II*-listed gallery’s double-sided vitrines using more than 200 minimal LED fittings to light exhibits. The Museum has more than four million specimens, scientific illustrations and items of collectors’ paraphernalia and the newly illuminated exhibits range from a dwarf crocodile and an emperor penguin, to the skeleton of a two-toed sloth.


Nature’s Library is on the middle floor of three in the spectacular, Alfred Waterhouse designed, neo-Gothic building. Its two- sided display cases resembling individual encyclopaedias, standing on the ‘shelf’ that surrounds the building’s central well. At the end of each bay there are windows that have been screened off in order to control lighting levels and protect delicate collections from the sunlight. Lighting designer Zerlina Hughes’s scheme for the gallery goes from diffuse ‘daylight’ into twilight and night-time. As viewers travel down the gallery, the apparent ambient levels drop, heightening the dramatic effect of spotlighting exhibits previously illuminated by a mix of general and overhead lighting that made them look dull and flat. The visual effect is subtle but makes it easier


to read the building’s architecture. The carefully positioned and directed LED lighting concealed within the cases gives specimens more impact. The small but easily focused LED spotlights have transformed the displays with highlights, shadow and texture not only adding visual interest but also giving exhibits context. “The museum wanted to foster a sense of exploration and discovery,” says David Gelsthorpe, Manchester Museum’s curator of Earth Science Collections, “where visitors were drawn into an atmospheric space. This was achieved with great effect and the museum is delighted with the result. Studio ZNA was very sensitive to the historic setting and has delivered a distinctive lighting design that sits seamlessly with the other gallery spaces.” www.precisionlighting.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150