Museum Building Research Articles

Microbial Air Quality in the Built Environment—Case Study of Darvas-La Roche Heritage Museum House, Oradea, Romania

Problems in the degradation and biodegradation of cultural heritage objects exposed or stored in public buildings and museums and of construction materials are caused (between others) by the activity of microorganisms. Biodeterioration can be observed not only at the level of the building materials of museum buildings, but also at the level of materials from which art objects are made (natural or artificial) and is determined by factors such as the chemical composition and nature of the composition material, the microclimate characteristics and exposure objects, but also through the manner and frequency of surface cleaning and housekeeping in museums. Based on this, the present study offers, through classical methods, a qualitative and quantitative identification of microorganisms inside a heritage museum building located in a temperate climate country. The purpose of the work was to determine to what extent the bacteriological microflora inside can directly and indirectly contribute to the health quality of the building’s occupants as well as the degradation of its materials and structures. The results emphasize the presence of some fungi and bacteria, among them Alternaria spp., Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp., and Botrytis spp. All of the analyzed rooms have a high and very high degree of fungal contamination (between 524 and 3674 UFC/m3), which can represent a danger to both human health and the integrity of the exhibitions. This is more pronounced considering that some of species of fungi identified are associated with sick building syndrome, problems in humans due to harmful exposure to viruses, bacteria, and pathogens, which generate possible symptoms such as rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, hoarseness, coughing, sneezing, and irritability for the personnel and visitors.

Ethnomathematics Exploration At The State Museum Of North Sumatra

Ethnomatematics can be used as a way to convey local culture and mathematics simultaneously, because ethnomatematics is a combination of culture and mathematics. The State Museum of North Sumatra is one of the historic buildings of North Sumatra which contains ethnomathematics concepts. This study aims to explore the ethnomathematics contained in the State Museum of North Sumatra. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with an ethnographic approach. The research subject was one of the officers of the State Museum of North Sumatra. Data collection techniques include observation, interviews, documentation and literature studies. The results of the study prove that there are geometric shapes and geometric shapes in the North Sumatra State Museum building and several historical heritage objects in the North Sumatra State Museum. And there is the concept of geometric transformation in the ornaments of the North Sumatra State Museum.

Ethnomathematics Exploration of Museum Gedung Arca (State Museum of North Sumatra)

Education and culture are two things that cannot be separated. In education there are cultural values ​​in it. Ethnomatematics is a blend of mathematics and culture. Ethnomatematics can improve students' mathematical abilities. By exploring the ethnomathematics of the Arca Building Museum or the State Museum of North Sumatra, students can get to know the culture and geometric concepts of flat shapes found in building forms and museum collections. The geometry of a flat shape is a form of geometry that has an area and a width. The aim of the research is to improve students' mathematics learning and mathematical abilities through geometric exploration of flat shapes in building shapes, collections, and collection placement in museums. The method I used in my research was qualitative research. The results of the research obtained are finding the geometric concept of flat shapes through the shape of the building, the collection, and the placement of the Museum collection. Ethnomatematics exploration is an alternative to improve mathematics learning and students' mathematical abilities. By exploring the concept of geometric shapes in the form of museum buildings, students can easily understand the mathematics of geometric shapes.
 Keywords: Ethnomathematics, Sculpture Building Museum, Flat Shape Geometry

Counseling on the Utilization of Tourism Linguistic Landscape Theory at the Museum Subang West Java

Linguistics has developed as a scientific discipline that can be side by side with disciplines outside of language. One of them is with the discipline of landscape and tourism science. In this article, Servant analyzes labeling within the Museum Subang by utilizing the theory of tourism linguistic landscape. Within the Museum Subang area, labeling is spread from the entrance gate to the back of the museum building. There are seven labels that Servicemen take by documenting using a digital camera. Then, the Servant conducts counseling on the results of the analysis of the seven labels that the Servant received earlier, to officers or guides who are in the museum area. The purpose of this service is to introduce the theory of tourism linguistic landscapes to the public, in this case officers or guides. The methods of implementing community service activities used in this community service are direct approaches, surveys, counseling, discussions, documentation, and literature. The results and conclusions of this dedication are that linguistics can be useful to be juxtaposed with other sciences and is beneficial for the wider community's knowledge in a comprehensive manner.

Research on Thermal and Humidity Environment of Cultural Relics Exhibition Room

In order to meet the needs of humanistic education, museum buildings have developed vigorously in recent years. The protection and display of cultural relics is an effective way to continue historical information, which has important social and cultural significance. During the design and operation of the building air conditioning system, both the thermal and humidity environment of the cultural relics exhibition room should be responsible for the safety of the displayed cultural relics and the thermal comfort of visitors should be considered. In this paper, the indoor thermal and humidity environment of a cultural relic exhibition room in Beijing was measured, and the indoor air velocity distribution and temperature and humidity distribution were obtained. The results show that the thermal and humidity environment of the cultural relics exhibition room is better, but the indoor temperature of the exhibition room is lower, which still has great energy saving potential. It needs to be improved in the future engineering practice to achieve double optimization of comfort and energy saving effect. In order to achieve accurate control of the indoor thermal and humidity environment of the cultural relics exhibition room, we built a data collection for thermal environment parameters and air quality, which is used for monitoring and data collection of the cultural relics exhibition room.

Recent trends on BIM in architectural design in Russia

This paper presents an overview of the relevant normative framework related to BIM in architectural design in Russia. It focuses on the use of Russian software for BIM architectural design (in particular, it views Renga and NanoCAD) for education in architecture and architecture practice. It analyses several case studies for low-rise cottage, public buildings, school and museum buildings. The features of working with digital information models at various stages, project management are shown. Examples of the application of domestic software are considered. Together with other creative methods for architectural design, creating and working with digital building information models provides a wide range of opportunities for architectural education.

„Zapojíte se do diskuze?“ Uvažování o muzeích na stránkách českých muzejních periodik (1989–2021)

The analysis based on the leading Czech museum periodicals from 1989–2021 explores the understanding of the phenomenon of the museum. The conclusions show the lack of advanced discussion about the museum’s role during this period. Most museum workers are only concerned with practical problems; they are unwilling to reflect on their work critically, and their idea of the museum is based primarily on physical collections. There is an evident distance between the narrow circle of active theorists in the academic environment and the reserved majority of curators and conservators in the regional museums. This majority does not participate in public discussions, and because of that, its opinions and arguments are more implicit in the analyzed texts. Many published articles are concerned with the history of concrete museum collections, buildings, and significant personalities. The authors frequently underlined the long and rich tradition of Czech museums. However, their perspective lacks a necessary reflective examination (i. e. the museum as an institution and a building with a long history but without a precisely defined position in contemporary society). Review of new exhibitions is a long-neglected genre, often replaced with abstracts or notices. During the last few years, the situation has been improving due to some impulses of new museology and educational turn (i. e. the museum as a responsive and accessible institution to the local community).

Fond architekta Josefa Schulze. Tvůrce budovy Národního muzea v archivních dokumentech

Fund of the architect Josef Schulz, creator of the National Museum building, in archival documents Creator of Prague’s best-known representative buildings as well as the National Museum, Josef Schulz (1840–1917) left behind quite a large personal estate. Its recently organised family and personal section, stored in the National Museum Archives, opens up wider research possibilities not only for the study of the architect’s life and work, but also for the broader exploration of the topic of architectural historism. The article draws attention to individual types of documents in the context of the testator’s life path, and the posthumous fate of his legacy.

Development of Museological Thought in Croatia and Vladimir Tkalčić’s Place in It

The paper first provides an overview of the historical level of museology and the history of museology as its special aspect because researching the work of a personality from the history of museums in Croatia belongs exactly to this level and aspect of museology. Next, successive stages of the development of museological thought are given, and persons who made contributions in Croatia are identified. In conclusion, it is determined that although Tkalčić cannot be called the initiator of the Croatian museology, as provided in the entry in the Croatian Encyclopaedia, he was an expert on basic theoretical museological concepts, even more so in the field of practical museology, who not only kept track of foreign thought but also laid in practice many foundations related to the furnishing of museum buildings, the principles of good exhibition, and the use of various means of communication, all with an aim to allow also the least educated audience to find museums to be places of education and learning.

Space Crisis: Encounter in the Museum Building or Online?

After witnessing a huge turnaround in the wider social context in the previous period, it seems that the question of the future of museums in the digital environment has begun to take on a very optimistic tone full of potential. There is a growing visibility of these heritage institutions on social networks and an increasingly diverse offer of virtual tours, as well as the use of modern virtual and augmented reality technologies in the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage, while some works of art and collections are created exclusively for cyberspace. Nevertheless, the museum as a meeting place still seems irreplaceable. At a time of isolation, growing loneliness and fears, studies on the emotions of visitors during their stay in the museum in the last few years show that real, physical spaces of the museum encourage constructive attitudes. Encounters with other visitors as well as with the exhibited artifacts especially prove to be important for positive feelings and the need to visit the museum. We will issue these theoretical premises on selected examples and examine whether modern technologies serve as additional tools of promotion and other possible ways of presenting museum content or, oppositely, whether social media and NFT galleries manage to overcome the need for the museum itself as a place of physical encounter.

The Future Belongs to Those Who Can Make it a Reality

The article is devoted to the specifics of modern museums, positioning themselves as museums of the future. The author analyses this new format in the world of museums. The Museum of the Future in Dubai, created by Sean Killa with the participation of Killa Design, Buro Happold and Mattar ben Lahej, serves as an example. The author notes a particular interest in the construction of museums around the world. This arises from the unique purpose of such objects - their ability to become a symbol of the city and, in a certain sense, create its positive image in the public mind. Such prominent architects as Zaha Hadid, Peter Schweger, Aldo Rossi, Hans Hollein, Axel Schultes, Shigeru Ban and others paid attention to the construction of museums. Considering several relatively new museum buildings, the author identifies some general trends, among which, first of all, are the expressiveness of architectural images and a change in the museum concept. As a rule, there are no works of art in the museum of the future. The author believes that this is perhaps the most shocking moment experienced by those visitors who were hoping for a meeting with the classics or contemporary art. The traditional image of the temple of the muses and the national treasury has been replaced by a new museum, in which the priority is given to meeting with the event. Now the museum is a place of educational programs, an opportunity to test one’s creative abilities. The modern museum, which has chosen the position of interpreting the future, is a kind of intellectual, communicative, public centre with leisure services.

The Effect of Orientation and Material On Thermal Comfort In Museum Perkebunan Indonesia Building

Thermal comfort is something that must be considered in a building to create comfort for its users. One of the factors that influence thermal conditions is the orientation of the building towards the sun and building materials. The Museum Perkebunan Indonesia is one of the famous and oldest museums in Medan, Indonesia. Besides that, the museum still has the dutch colonial architecture style, which is mostly known as a building with good air circulation because of the amount of ventilation and window they have. Based on that, this study aims to measure the thermal comfort of each room with a different orientation in Museum Perkebunan Indonesia and then to examine the effect of thermal comfort in Museum Perkebunan Indonesia. Moreover, the study also discusses the material used in Museum Perkebunan Indonesia building. The methodology of this study is qualitative-descriptive by solving the existing problems based on quantitative data that is done by the measurement of air temperature that was carried out for six different days, starting from morning to evening. Furthermore, the study also analyses and describes the object research. The analysis itself shows that the orientation effect has a significant effect compared to the influence of building materials on the museum building. And the result of the analysis shows that Museum Perkebunan Indonesia Building falls into the uncomfortable category according to the Standard Procedure for Planning Energy Conservation in Buildings.

Proximate interiors: When exhibition design activates museum architecture

In recent decades, the ocularcentrism of museums has been challenged by the design of immersive, multisensory exhibition environments. In many museums, these environments are placed within ‘white cubes’ and ‘black boxes’ that provide a (supposedly) neutral space for exhibition making, and in the case of historic museum buildings, materially rich but non-neutral interiors are sometimes covered by visual backdrops and projections. This article will explore how exhibition design can, instead, work actively with the architectural museum interiors. Based on analysis of two exhibitions at Copenhagen museums, it will explore the potential of exhibition design that taps into the material particularities of museum interiors, thereby strengthening the museum visitors’ sense of being present within the museum space. The article will draw on the concept of atmosphere (Gernot Böhme), while also making critical inquiry into the concept’s ability to capture the material proximity effects of exhibition design that activates architectural museum interiors.

Assessment of thermo-hygrometric environment of historic museum building in Constantine-Algeria

Assessing the indoor microclimate of heritage and historic buildings is important to preserve them and their contents and study their decay and damage processes. This study aims to evaluate the thermo-hygrometric environment, and its impact on the exhibited objects and visitors’ comfort of an old Ottoman Palace (Ahmed Bey) converted into a museum. The National Museum of Traditional Arts and Cultural Expressions-Ahmed Bey Palace-is located in Constantine, North East of Algeria, characterized by a semi-arid climate. The building has internal courtyards and does not have an HVAC system. The most critical thermo-hygrometric parameters have been calculated and assessed in the exhibition’s permanents rooms using the HD32.3 datalogger during the winter period from January to March of 2019. The measured data were compared to acceptable values suggested by the Italian Standard UNI 10829 for artefact preservation and to the corresponding external outdoor conditions. The results show that the interior conditions of exhibition rooms are mainly dependent on the external climatic conditions. The air temperature values are out of the acceptable range, while the relative humidity values are higher than the acceptable values. Thus, the monitoring parameters are not reasonably acceptable for the preservation of the kind of objects exhibited and the thermal comfort of visitors.

Assessment of the Suitability of Non-Air-Conditioned Historical Buildings for Artwork Conservation: Comparing the Microclimate Monitoring in Vasari Corridor and La Specola Museum in Florence

The current energy crisis and the necessity to minimize energy waste suggest the need to assess non-air-conditioned buildings in terms of the need to install an air-conditioning system and to size and control it efficiently. This applies to historical museum buildings hosting artworks that require specific microclimate conditions for their preservation. With this view, this work analyzes the suitability of non-air-conditioned historical museum buildings to properly preserve exhibits. Therefore, two non-air-conditioned museums located in the historical city center of Florence, Italy, are considered as case studies, i.e., Vasari Corridor and La Specola. One year of indoor microclimate data monitored in representative rooms of the museums are analyzed according to the standard for artworks preservation and in terms of historical climate. Results of monitored indoor air temperature and relative humidity show that all monitored rooms are not suitable for the preservation of the exhibits without the installation of an air-conditioning system. However, to minimize the energy consumption, the hygrothermal control can be based on the observed historical climate that characterizes the environments, which presents acceptable preservation ranges much wider that the reference technical standard. In this way, the energy needs for the environmental control necessary to ensure the good conservation of the artworks can be significantly reduced.

The effects of physical environment in Ottoman healthcare facilities: 2nd Beyazid Complex in Edirne

Healthcare facilities have an important place in Ottoman Architecture. Started to be built during the Anatolian Seljuk period and continued into the Ottoman in many cities, they manage to survive. However, it is not possible to use them with their original functions today. Most of them are used by serving as exhibition and museum buildings like Edirne Sultan 2nd Beyazid Health Complex. In the use of such historical buildings, the examination of their response to changing living conditions and needs is important. This study investigates how the physical environment affected the design of the complex, and the impacts of its planning and building envelope on today’s IEQ. The physical environmental data were discussed about thermal, daylight, ventilation, and acoustics performances by calculating and evaluating the existing energy consumption of the building. Methods like literature review, direct observation, on-site examination, simulation, and documenting with photographs were used. It was determined that five hundred years ago, the building was compatible with its physical environmental data in terms of its function, planning, and building envelope, and, as being a museum today, it provides all the necessary comfort conditions for its users, and that the energy consumption is at an acceptable level.

THE CONSERVATION FRAMEWORK OF HISTORIC INTERIOR SCHEME AS A GUIDELINE FOR FUTURE HERITAGE MUSEUM PLANNING: A CASE STUDY OF ‘RUMAH TEH BUNGA’ IN GEORGE TOWN PENANG

The heritage museum tourism has rapidly grown, contributing the most incometo Government of Malaysia while receiving local and global tourists. SinceMalaysian museums are among the most important tourism assets for the country, they must be given attention, especially the interior spaces of the museum. The interior spaces carry different stories. Due to their own unique historic interior scheme (HIS), different interior features, room functions, spatial designs, historic materials, finishes, and the associated historical events would fill the interior spaces. Unfortunately, the significance of HIS has gradually disappeared due to the exhibitions in the museums. Accordingly, not only the historic integrity in preserving the heritage museum buildings cannot be complied with, but also the significance of the HIS is not highlighted in the exhibition. This study aimed to propose a HIS conservation framework as a guideline for preserving the historic scheme of museum building interior. The evaluation method was used to measure the HIS and HES of the interior space of the museum. ‘Rumah Teh Bunga’ also known as the Penang Malay Gallery in George Town Penang has been selected for the case study. Hopefully, the HIS framework would inform the museum bodies to make the interior spaces of the museum more memorable for tourists.

A decomposition-ensemble prediction method of building thermal load with enhanced electrical load information

Accurate thermal load forecasting is essential for intelligent building energy management. The lack of meteorological data and the variability of thermal load often result in low prediction accuracy of thermal load. This paper proposes a novel decomposition-ensemble prediction model to predict thermal load accurately when the meteorological parameters are missing. The model combines the variational mode decomposition technology and the gated recurrent unit algorithm, in which the information of electrical load is extracted and considered to assist the thermal load prediction. The two datasets of an office building and a museum building are employed to train and test the model. The case results demonstrate that the variational mode decomposition method can effectively decrease the prediction uncertainty for thermal load series. The advantages of the proposed model have better prediction performance than the basic and hybrid models.

Computational modelling and simulation to mitigate the risk of daylight exposure in tropical museum buildings

In museum design and operation, daylight is typically discouraged due to high risk of damaging the display objects. However, past studies in high-latitude regions have shown the possibility to apply daylight in museums, so long as it is carefully planned, and the display objects are not from the category of high responsive materials. In the tropical region, the influence of daylighting on light exposure on museum objects is still unknown. This study therefore aims to assess and mitigate the impact of annual daylight exposure on objects with low responsive materials in a tropical daylit museum building. Annual daylight modelling and simulation are performed to achieve the objective, followed with Morris sensitivity analysis and Mahalanobis distance classifier to optimise the outcome. It is found that either WWR or glazing transmissivity gives the greatest influence on the performance indicators. Based on the proposed optimisation algorithm, it is possible to determine the optimum solutions satisfying the performance indicators target, for a certain opening type. Overall, the contribution of this study is the proposed computational modelling and simulation methods to mitigate the exposure risk while optimising daylight as a renewable energy source.

Evaluation of Building Materials Using Energy Efficiency Criteria in Selected Museums in South-West Nigeria

Energy efficiency ensures reduced energy for heating and cooling space, lower maintenance requirements, reduce the cost of running a building, and improve users’ comfort in a space. The amount of energy used by building materials is an essential factor in defining the energy efficiency of the building. This study evaluates the building materials used in selected south-western museums using energy efficiency criteria to identify materials that comply with energy-efficient criteria, which would be recommended to ensure energy-efficient materials are adopted by Museum buildings. The study’s objective is to identify the existing energy-efficient materials used in Museums and evaluate the identified building materials in terms of energy efficiency. The study methodology employed is qualitative, engaging case studies and observation guides to determine the materials used in existing museums. The materials identified were evaluated using the energy-efficient criteria provided by Yüksek [1]. The sample size consists of materials used in selected national Museums of southwest Nigeria. The results derived from the case studies identified the materials used in the selected Museums and their level of energy efficiency, which affects the maintenance and the overall cost for running the Museum. The results from the study identified a total of eleven materials. It was shown from the results that while four of the eleven materials complied fully with the energy-efficient criteria, the other materials did not comply fully with the energy-efficient criteria. This study recommends that more materials that comply with energy-efficient criteria be adopted to improve energy efficiency in buildings. Professionals in the built environment should focus more on energy-efficient materials to ensure an energy-efficient building