Natural History Museum, Oslo

Following the most extensive renovation measures in its history, the Naturhistorisk Museum in Oslo reopened its doors to visitors in May 2022. In collaboration with the museum scientists, the exhibition designers of the renowned Atelier Brückner from Stuttgart created an impressive collection from over 4.5 billion years of natural history on 2,000 m² of exhibition space. Simultaneously rich and sensitive, the exhibits and their museography take the visitor on a journey through time in the historic, 100-year-old building with its listed interior finishings. Discreet, apt, and at the same time immersive, Licht Kunst Licht has staged the new exhibition with light.

Although the lighting design team entered the project rather late, it was possible to influence, for example, the location of lighting tracks for the later adaptation of exhibition spotlights. The spotlights for the functional lighting were adapted to those of the exhibition lighting in terms of model, size, and warm-tone color temperature to enable a uniform appearance. The lighting tracks pervade all important zones and accommodate track heads with varying light distributions and accessories. A lighting concept that works its magic especially after the meticulous aiming, brings shapes, colors and textures to life through carefully placed accents.

In order to achieve a good balance between staging the exhibits on the one hand and blocking out the light source on the other, it was necessary to manufacture custom-made shutter profiles.

The light from track spotlights and elements integrated into display cases sensitively blends into the historic building and its furnishings. It responds flexibly to the manifold objects on display and creates a special harmony with the contents of the exhibition.

An immersive space is established in the newly created Crystal Cave, which experiences an exciting artificial light presentation in the daylightless underground. Furthermore, in the UV Chamber fluorescent minerals that interact with different wavelengths of UV light are mounted on a black-clad back wall. They are illuminated sequentially with visible, UV-A and UV-C light. In the final scene, the light is turned off and the visitor sees the crystals' afterglow for a few moments.