Futureplan, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
 

the challenge

SSD is working on three projects for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One is the creation of new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. This project is a tight coupling of the space design and the exhibition design, and brings the soundscape into the total experience for the public. We are also working on the creation of an Islamic Middle East gallery to display some of the V&A's collection of great Islamic arts and crafts, and on a new Education Centre and auditorium.

Our work includes:-
» Aesthetic acoustics – where the sound environment can be proactive in creating an overall environmental aesthetic – to show off the exhibits in a certain way/emphasis, and to tie together various groupings of artifacts.
» Communication between tour guide and tour groups.
» Control of reverberance for social/hire events.

We have developed soundsketch auralisations to illustrate the proposed changes to the acoustical environment with computer modelling, allowing the client and architect to get to the heart of the aesthetics and function directly through listening, and to better judge the value for money.

the venue

http://www.vam.ac.uk/futureplan/about/