The new monumental National Museum in Oslo is a world class museum with the largest and most valuable art collections in Norway. Designed by architect Klaus Schuwerk of Kleihues + Schuwerk, the museum merges four pre-existing museums; the Museum of Architecture, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design and the National Gallery of Norway. It showcases the full breadth and history of Norway, bringing together extensive collections of classical, modern and contemporary Norwegian art, as well as architecture and design. The spectacular building has instantly become a new landmark for Oslo, placed in the most central part of the city.
The lighting design concept is a balanced design with focus on light quality and experience. The concept is based on a luminance hierarchy where the art and architecture are experienced as united. The designed luminance hierarchy in the general areas ensures that the museums most sensitive art pieces can be displayed with low lighting levels. The architect wanted to build “a perfect building with a succession of well-proportioned rooms.” The lighting design emphasises the architecture and becomes a natural part of the visual environment. Visual comfort, readability and luminance are the main elements of the design, where both technical and aesthetic solutions are emphasised.
The museum is built up with clean and robust materials like oak, bronze, limestone, slate and marble. These highclass materials will age with dignity and the same intentions were set for the lighting design – to be timeless and still relevant many years after the opening. The lighting design goal was to give an honest and timeless feeling to the rooms and create a bright and welcoming aura.
The artificial skylights are specially developed to meet both the visual and the technical requirements in this project. The luminaires gives the rooms a classical feeling with allusions to daylight. The solution was developed through a large number of mock-ups to find the perfect balance between light source and textile, visual depth, aesthetics and light quality. The skylights have a grid of LEDs with tuneable white 2700-6500K, premium light quality with double layer of textile in front. The result was highly successful and can be found as a standard product from the producer today.
Henning Larsen designed the architectural lighting for all the museum’s public spaces, offices, back of house areas, library and cafè, as well as the artificial skylights in the exhibition areas. With its 54,600sqm and more than 1200sqm of exhibition areas, the museum is one of the largest in Europe. The lighting design team was also had unusual leading part in the project as commissioned by Statsbygg, the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property, to procure nearly 6000 spotlights for the museum. Henning Larsen set extremely high demands for the light quality in the project, which made the producer to change LED-chip in their luminaires to meet our requirements. Henning Larsen also worked close with the museums conservation staff to procure special luminaires to meet their special needs.
