Working with longtime collaborator West Office, Lightswitch designed the exhibit lighting to support the project’s goal of engaging and educating children, their families and classmates.
Working with longtime collaborator West Office, Lightswitch designed the exhibit lighting to support the project’s goal of engaging and educating children, their families and classmates.
How do the choices we make affect our health? That’s the question posed by The California Museum’s “Health Happens Here” exhibit. Designed by West Office Exhibition Design, the 3,000-square-foot exhibit uses interactive elements to engage and educate youth about the health of themselves and their communities.
Working with longtime collaborator West Office, Lightswitch designed the exhibit lighting to support the project’s goal of engaging and educating children, their families and classmates. We used a layered lighting approach to establish a visual hierarchy within the exhibit, using light to call visitors’ attention to key elements and to minimize others. Display lighting is soft and smooth to provide crisp, even illumination of the articulated wall panels that contain interactive stations. Within the walls, glowing white LED lighting frames the headlines that announce each interactive station and the embedded screens that feature the interactive content. The same white lighting tops the freestanding station, directing guests’ gaze to another important exhibit element.
Having worked with West Office on many projects over the years, we had the expertise needed to achieve their vision. Like the exhibit design, the lighting was kept minimal and clean to minimize distractions for young visitors, but it was also thoughtfully designed and executed to keep their attention. In doing so, it also attracted the attention of The American Alliance of Museums, which honored it with an “Excellence in Exhibition” Award. Photos: West Office Exhibition Design
