Category Archives: Studio news

Things that are happening in the world of dha

Oman & the World: A Musical Journey opens in Muscat

Our latest project with 59Productions, Oman & the World opened at the Royal Opera House in Muscat on the 1st June.

This wonderfully rich and immersive exhibition ‘charts the story of music in a rich and immersive journey from sounds appearing in nature, through the science and techniques of instrumentation, to the role music plays in our societies and inside each of us’ (59Productions). Music was a key interest of the late Sultan of Oman, and the exhibition is a tribute to his passion for musical arts; not only those of Oman, but also internationally & how he was keen to bring world-class musicians to Oman to perform in the Opera House.

As part of the exhibition team, DHA were tasked with creating all of the object, graphic and show sequence lighting across a number of spaces to bring the exhibition to life. We worked closely with the exhibition designers, plus the sound designers (Coda to Coda) to ensure the lighting was tightly integrated with all of the design elements. As the architectural spaces were so carefully detailed, standard track solutions were rejected in favour of a carefully plotted ceiling array that made use of a beautiful ceiling design that also functioned as an acoustic panel system – very important in a space that featured music and sound throughout.

As expected from 59Productions theatrical focus, two key immersive spaces were created for the exhibition as the first and last visitor experiences: here DHA worked with the audio-visual and sound designers to create show sequences that supported the content, changing the lighting to support the audio environment.

Holocaust & Second World War Galleries win at Museum + Heritage Awards 2022

Gary Shelley of Casson Mann holds the award

We were delighted when our clients at the Imperial War Museum accepted the trophy for the Best New Permanent Gallery at the 2022 Museum + Heritage Awards at on the 11th May. As they said at the time, ‘This has been so much more than a job‘. Indeed, it has: so many compelling stories, artefacts and personal effects from a complete V1 flying bomb to cap badges present a completely new view of the second major conflict of the Twentieth Century.

The Holocaust Galleries in particular rewrite the rules on presenting such a harrowing narrative: before the emphasis has been on sombre, dark spaces; here, Casson Mann fill the galleries with light to show that the events of the Holocaust were not hidden, but done in plain sight, witnessed by so many people at the time, creating a completely new impression of both the perpetrators and their victims. By comparison, the World War 2 Galleries emphasise the human scale of the war, with many individual stories creating a compelling timeline of the conflict.

We were delighted to work with the client team of directors, curators, conservators & interpretation specialists to give each object, text and image its proper place & visibility in these complex spaces.

We want to express our thanks to the two design companies, Casson Mann & Ralph Applebaum Associates, who made us part of their design teams to deliver these stories – exhibition design is a complex & involved process; we only feed into a small part of the machinery that delivers the finished project, but we very happy to involved in every step of the way, from concept to commissioning.

The response to the galleries has been overwhelmingly positive: The Times described the design as ‘compelling’, the Telegraph, ‘a tremendous achievement’ & the Guardian, ‘stimulating, sensitive & humane’.

DHA projects shortlisted at Museum+Heritage Awards 2022

We are delighted that no less than three of our recent projects have been shortlisted in the Best Permanent Gallery category at the Museum + Heritage Awards for 2022.

Each project (the Second World War & Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum, the Wordsworth Trust Museum in Grasmere & the Manchester Jewish Museum) have quite distinct content and tone, but all represent the absolute best in contemporary museum design, and we are pleased to have had a role in their creation. We particularly like to thank the designers for each project: Casson Mann for the Holocaust Galleries, Ralph Applebaum Associates for the Second World War Galleries, All Things Studio for the Manchester Jewish Musem and Nissen Richards for the Wordsworth Trust Museum for making us part of their design teams.

Beyond the designers, we worked with an excellent team of curators, conservators, interpretation consultants & contractors across all of these projects, so it is fantastic to see their work being recognised in this way. The awards will be presented on 11th May at an actual, live ceremony, so it’s even more good news that industry events are finally returning to normal!

Nero: The Man Behind the Myth at British Museum

Image by Edward Bishop

The British Museum’s latest major exhibition, Nero: The Man Behind the Myth recently opened to great response in the press. The major reviews were gathered together by The Week, and they show just how fantastically well the exhibition has been received: the show has been described as a ‘wonderfully evocative exhibition’ which makes ‘history feel vividly alive’ (The Times), whereas the Telegraph also called it ‘evocative’ but when on to describe the overall experience as ‘wildly exciting’ & a ‘provocative, brilliant polemic’

Image by Edward Bishop

DHA worked closely with Drinkall Dean and Lombaert Studio to create a theatrical setting for this showman of the Roman world, including the use light projections, gobo textures and animated light sequences, with all objects beautifully and carefully lit.

Image by Edward Bishop

The exhibition is open now at the British Museum until 24th October 2021. Tickets may be booked through the British Museum’s website for the exhibition here.

Article: lighting mock-ups; intense work, but necessary

When creating bespoke lighting systems for display cases, then a physical mock-up – as intensive and time-consuming as it will be – is an absolutely necessity for the best results.

Jonathan Howard recently travelled – in a Covid-safe manner, naturally – with designers from Casson Mann to the factory of Click Netherfield in Livingston, just outside Edinburgh. The aim was to test and refine the lighting in some key display cases for a new museum, opening in London in 2022.

Not only will the cases be built mainly from glass, but the contents of each case will be a variety of samples and specimens, all displayed in liquid-filled glass jars: with so many reflective and refractive surfaces in use, it becomes easy to see why only a mock-up could cope with the many variables and methods in play: lighting all of the objects to give them a suitable weight and clarity when they need to be limited in light levels, while making sure that labels and graphics are very clearly illuminated is quite a feat of engineering and one that has been occupying us in the recent months.

Separation of light levels between graphics an objects has been developed using a combination of very narrow beam angle LED fixtures by Vexica, with a series of masking elements developed by Jonathan & Click’s designers, which has meant that we can achieve light levels of over 200 lux on a graphic that is merely millimetres from a shelf that is lit to a maximum of 50 lux; this separation will allow visitors to read small text easily, while not suffering with visual accommodation problems when they look past to the objects themselves, displayed at conservation light levels that will protect their organic content. As the source of the light is masked from view, we cut extraneous reflections and glare that could easily make the multiple glass and metal surfaces become their own light sources and a source of visual confusion.

The museum will not open until well into 2022, but this work needs to be carried out now to ensure that cases can be built in good time for transport and assembly on site, ready for the collection to be transferred to the finished gallery.