Refurbishing solutions for a museum: the integration between new multimedia exhibition technologies and artificial lighting systems

The historical building “Museum of the Compass and the Maritime Duchy of Amalfi” (Italy) was used as a case study to evaluate the efficiency of a new way to exhibit historical artefacts through modern multimedia technologies, focusing on the visual environment. Studies and analyses have been carried out with the goals of improving the fruition of the historical site as well as integrating the need to preserve a historical building along with the need of a new final destination as museum. The research starts with new design and refurbishing solutions of the building so as to enhance its usability as well as guarantee a better balance between the preservation of the historical building and the exhibit needs. A specific lighting system was designed taking into account the different preservation needs of the historical building as well as the enhancement of the different museum spaces. Different types of luminaires were used for each lighting need: (1) identification of the expositive itinerary; (2) requirements for general lighting and (3) highlighting of historical artefacts. Particular attention was given to the quality of the light as well as the visual comfort of the visitors. Finally, in order to define the best design solution, the simulation software DIALux was used to compare the different luminaires types and arrangements.