Exhibition design · method

Exhibition design does not decorate a room: it rewrites it. It decides what is seen first, how long each piece is looked at and in what order a story is understood. Every arrangement is an interpretation — the height of a case, the distance between two pieces, the light each object receives; our job is to make the argument visible without the device outweighing the pieces.

Five principles. 1 · The existing room is the first document. 2 · The route is the script. 3 · Furniture is architecture at body scale. 4 · Light is curation. 5 · Design to install and dismantle.

How we work on an exhibition. Each exhibition is treated as temporary architecture inside an existing room. The process has six steps, each producing a deliverable the client and curators can check:

1 · Script and site. Reading the curatorial script, inventory of pieces (dimensions, weight, conservation requirements) and location of the room in the building and the city.

2 · Survey of the room. A 3D model of the existing room: walls, rooflights, stairs, load points, services and escape routes.

3 · Route and zoning. Installation plan with chapters, visitor flows, capacity, accessibility and resting points.

4 · Pieces and exploded view. Design of bespoke furniture — cases, frames, plinths, panels — and exploded drawings for fabrication, with materials, joints and assembly times.

5 · Light and section. Sections with sightlines, natural and artificial light, conservation-safe lighting levels and the relation between graphics and object.

6 · Installation. Final isometric and an animation of the sequence — empty room, exploded pieces, assembled exhibition — fabrication and installation schedule, and on-site supervision.

Deliverables: installation drawings, furniture data sheets, itemised budget, schedule, animated isometrics and graphic sheets.

Exhibitions: «BLAA 60 years, evidence for a nation» (2018), «Of all the people» (2016), «Peace is with you», on the peace agreements (2016), «Facing the other» (2015, travelled to Madrid), «Hernán Díaz revealed» (2014–2015), «Sady González, memories of a reality» (2014), «Our connection with nature» (2014), «Le Corbusier in Bogotá» (2014), «Native North Americans: traditions and transitions» (2012–2013, Gold Museum), «Words that changed us» (2010) and «Habeas Corpus» (2010). Published in Enfoque Visual magazine no. 30.