6112m2 Energy, Technology, and Building | Fall 2006

November15,2006

Case Study: The Guggenheim Bilbao, by Frank Gehry

Meredith Harris, Justin Fowler, Nora Yoo, Johannes, Okhyun

Lighting Design as Exploration; A Presentation by Paul Zaferiou, Lam Partners Inc. How much do you as a firm integrate environmental concerns (reduced energy consumption) in your practice?

As a company, Lam Partners is very committed towards developing energy efficient strategies as applied to their lighting designs. During the development phase of the project, extensive energy analyses were conducted on the architecture of the Guggenheim in order to ascertain the relative levels of natural light entering the gallery spaces in the museum. In turn, these analyses provided the lighting designers with the data needed to develop an efficient electrical system that catered specifically to the museums primary function as an exhibition space. The natural light entering the upper gallery was redirected in order to illuminate the lower gallery space through a funnel in the middle of the upper gallery. This light well allowed for the natural illumination of the lower gallery without having to create unnecessary punctures in the preexisting wall design by Gehry.

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In terms of electrical lighting, a particular energy-saving feature of the Guggenheim includes a dimming system that reduces the intensity of the electrical lights by eight percent within the museum for special events. In addition to dimming the interior lighting system, there are very few lights illuminating the exterior surfaces at night, mostly owing to Frank Gehrys dislike for dramatic exterior lighting. What is your level of integration/involvement with the design process? At what stage of the design process do you become involved?

Lam Partners become involved in a variety of stages for a given design project. For the Guggenheim, Gehry involved the company at an early stage of the design process, thereby integrating from the start an effective lighting design for the museum. Gehry described the organization of the museum as being like a flower with the galleries acting as the petals peeling off of from the central atrium space.

For any given project, Lam Partners immediately identifies the primary lighting objectives of both the architect and the clients of the museum; the lighting designers in essence acted as the arbiters between Gehry and the members of the Guggenheim museum. Gehry expressed an

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November15,2006

enthusiasm for the use of as much daylight as possible, while the curators abhorred the idea of natural light flooding the exhibition spaces as ultra-violet light damages the works of art on display. In addition to these opposing opinions, the lighting architects had to devise an effective strategy for illuminating a very large, vertical interior volume by using the atrium as a central filter to redirect natural light into the various cavities of the building. Thus, the vast levels of natural light entering the atrium was filtered and funneled into the cavernous galleries, while simultaneously remaining aware of the reflective qualities of the continuous curvilinear walls. What were the shading strategies that you used to minimize solar heat gain in the Guggenheim?

Another key objective of the lighting architects was to produce a lighting system that was flexible for the multifunctional needs of the museum and easy to repair and maintain. All of the galleries have a dual motorized shading system that can create up to eight different lighting conditions. The shades act as a diffuser that alters the levels of ambient light within the gallery spaces. Furthermore, the dual shades can also completely black out all natural daylight which allows for complete control of the interior lighting conditions by the electrical systems. This flexible control of the lighting also provides the museum employees with the ability to constantly change the interior conditions in order to maintain an acceptable and comfortable environment and to minimize or eliminate the levels of natural light hitting the exhibition walls. How was your lighting strategy affected by the curved form and materiality of the interior spaces (white stucco, metal, limestone, glass, plaster)?

The materials were an important consideration for the lighting systems since each possesses differing reflective qualities. However, the primary material was white stucco for the interior walls which was considered when developing the powerpoint system for the interior lighting. The powerpoint system of specially engineered lights reoriented the light reflecting off of the walls and ceilings to be parallel with respect to the surface it was illuminating, thereby reducing the reflective effects of different materials. The titanium finished metal used on the exterior had a reduced reflective quality which did not have a significant impact on the light reflecting from this surface. What are the different considerations that you had here for skylights versus regular fenestration?

Ultimately, Lam Partners aimed to maintain a consistent level of daylight within the Guggenheim museum that did not exceed ten candles in the galleries. The only way for natural light to enter the museum space was through skylights since the walls did not have any regular fenestration in an effort to maximize the display space for the museums exhibitions. The skylights acted in conjunction to the powerpoint system that was mounted on a catwalk system on the ceilings of the galleries. Gehrys design for the skylights was to keep them completely flat with the roof. However, this was an inefficient means of employing skylights to capture natural daylight and filter it into the galleries below. Flat skylights are difficult to control as they often cause too much light to enter

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November15,2006

the space in the summer months and too little light in the winter months. Therefore, Lam Partners developed a boat hatch steel shading system that was mounted onto the skylights designed by Gehry. These hatches consisted of 3 curving panels that adapt to the seasonal variations in sunlight by altering the amount of light passing through the skylights. Thus, a maximum amount of sunlight could be constantly utilized by the museum throughout the year. Unfortunately Gehry triumphed over Lam Partners and this enormously efficient system was abandoned. Nonetheless, Lam Partners did conquer Gehry for the design of the catwalk scaffold system for the large gallery spaces. While Gehry wanted the ceilings to be completely free and clean, Lam Partners were able to seduce the museum staff with a highly flexible system that is easy to maintain and allows for the constant adjustment of the light for a variety of exhibition layouts. The aiming angles of the lights can be adjusted according to the height and size of the artwork so that an angle between thirty and thirty-five degrees to the vertical can be achieved for every exhibition displayed. Thus, problems involving veiling reflections and frame shadows are eliminated. In addition to the regular lighting system for the gallery, emergency lighting, working lights, and fire detectors can all be installed and easily maintained by the museum staff.