Engineering a new museum for Westminster Abbey's ancient triforium

Max Fordham’s work represents an apparently rare example of an engineering study being used directly to inform an architectural design, rather than the engineering following on from and making possible the architecture. The lighting conditions inside the gallery were absolutely crucial, as they both make sure that the objects on display are visible to the best possible effect and also have to be carefully considered to ensure that exposure to light  whether natural or artificial – does not damage the artefacts. Many of the exhibits are delicate fabrics and works on paper, which are very easily damaged by light, and some of the robes contain red pigments which are also susceptible to fading in sunlight.

Previous studies carried out by the National Gallery have proved that instantaneous bright light is not in fact as damaging to pigments as was once thought, but cumulative damage can be catastrophic. The team therefore used a laser scanner to model every surface inside the Abbey, and every light source –  from the direct sunlight coming in through the windows, to the ambient light coming through the open sides of the gallery’s internal walls from the nave – and then used data from Heathrow Airport (where readings are regularly taken of the intensity and direction of sunlight) to model how light enters and moves through the volume of the gallery space across every day of a typical year. From these models, they could identify the points in the gallery which receive the most intense sunlight and where items whose pigments would be susceptible to fading should be kept away from. In one instance, they recommended that an effigy (Queen Anne) should be rotated slightly to make sure none of her robes were in a dangerous position. Some of the windows in the outside wall of the Abbey had special UV filtering film applied to their inner faces, to remove the most damaging wavelengths.