The commercial carpeting seen on the floors of so many museums is oftentimes blah, ugly, or at best: invisible. The floor is a perfect place to execute a creative idea. It’s a fresh, unexpected spot. Here are some examples:
On the floor outside the entrance to Tim Burton at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is a spiral that collides with and veers up onto the wall, ending in an arrow that points the way to the gaping maw at the exhibition entrance. Clearly inspired, in general, by Mr. Burton’s distinctive style — and perhaps directly by this painting mentioned in MoMA’s blog — the spiral is fun and my favorite design detail from the exhibit.
Within the Exploring Space exhibit at the Connecticut Science Center, there are stars above and around you, in the form of tiny flickering LED lights embedded in the fabric-covered walls — and there are stars below you, projected onto the floor by GOBOs. This dark, starlit room allows you to pretend you are in deep space. (More from that museum visit in this blog post.)
In the Hall of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, there is a treat for those who spend any time looking at their shoes: fossilized footprints visible through the floor. Below, on the left, is another example from that same exhibit. Because the video monitors were set in a row, many people could stand around and watch without crowding, and because they were set into the floor, the short video (about animals’ adaption to the wet and dry seasons of Africa) didn’t distract from the exhibitry. (More from that museum visit in this post.)
Above, on the right, is a reproduction of a 13'-square battlefield map of Gettysburg from Big! at the National Archives Museum. Walking on and looking down at this huge, beautiful, old map was more engaging than had it been traditionally hung on the wall.
Green Community at the National Building Museum in DC had a few interesting things going on with the floor: 1. More than one type of flooring material was used, which gave the floor variety in textural feeling underfoot; 2. Varied and interesting colors and patterns on the floor; 3. The exhibit’s main messages were integrated directly into the floor. Overall, the effect was very impressive. (More from that exhibit visit in this post — my very first blog entry!)
These are just a few I’ve seen. I’d love to hear about an exhibition floor you’ve seen that made an impression.
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Post updated in January 2021 with minor text edits. Broken link has been fixed or replaced. This post was originally published at theexhibitdesigner.com on 1 March 2010.