(Above) The museum’s collection spans the period from ancient times to the present day; (right) the redesigned outdoor spaces
What challenges did you face? The old museum had a lot of chronologi- cal wall displays, which meant we could only really manage spaces for a 12- to 16-year time period, before we had to redesign everything. After the London Games in 2012, the
current lifecycle of exhibits was at an end and we saw it as an opportunity to change everything in a major way. As well as redesigning the museum, we
were also able to make general improve- ments to comply to updated health and safety standards and sustainable building practices and so on. So we closed the doors for almost two years and reopened in December 2013.
What are the changes? The previous museum offered quite an institutional and dated point of view. For example, when we covered issues like doping in sport it was from a moral standpoint, whereas now the battle to protect clean athletes is no longer a debate and we present the facts for visitors to interpret as they wish. We want to offer a 360-degree view of the modern Olympic movement – and of course the Games are at the centre of that. We cover its philosophical roots and the aims of De Courbetin and the
AM 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
achievements of the athletes. But we also take in the thousands of people behind the scenes – the volunteers, designers, architects – who make it all happen.
How has the outdoor space changed? We’ve redesigned many of the spaces and the journey through them. We think of the museum as the temple at the top of Mount Olympus, sitting on top of the hill surrounded by a beautiful, cultural park. We cleared the space nearest to Lake Geneva and opened up the west side of the museum to offer panoramic views. We wanted the inspiring messages of the Olympics to be in evidence as soon as people entered the park. For example, we’ve built a staircase leading up from
the lake to the museum, where the steps are engraved with the names of the Olympic torchbearers.
What’s the next development stage? During 2014, we’ll be working on our digital platforms, setting up a framework that will hopefully go live this summer. This digital space will be yet another location for the museum. On the website, there’ll be an ‘Olympic
Journey’ for people to follow. It draws on the vast amount of multimedia resources that we’ve used in all the permanent exhibitions in the past couple of decades. We’re re-versioning everything for our
digital space, so that we can create the kind of user connections you just can’t
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital 41
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