An evaluation of daylight distribution as an initial preventive conservation measure at two Smithsonian Institution Museums, Washington DC, USA

Hoyo‐Meléndez, Julio M. del; Mecklenburg, Marion F.; Doménech‐Carbó, María Teresa

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2010.05.003

Cited by 39 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…To date several studies concerning spaces illuminated by Natural Light propose methods to evaluate, use and control this type of illumination, or otherwise to avoid it [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Methods For Spectral Evaluation Of Daylight Damage In Artworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced daylighting evaluation applied to cultural heritage buildings and museums: Application to the cloister of Santa Maria El Paular

et al. 2016

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A method to evaluate the risk of using daylight in museums and cultural heritage exhibitions is presented along this study. Although daylight is an ecological and sustainable source of energy and sometimes also an intrinsic part of the artwork, the use of Natural lighting may cause damages in them due to the difficulty of controlling its variability. The developed method quantifies the damage produced to the artworks by daylight compared to artificial light taking into account the level of radiation and its spectral distribution in space and time by comparison with the damage caused by an Illuminant A (Global Risk Factor). The method, applied to the permanent paintings exhibition in the cloister of the fifteenth century of the Monastery of Santa Maria de El Paular, certifies that the control and exploitation of Natural Light should consider an optimal balance between exposure and damage.

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“…To date several studies concerning spaces illuminated by Natural Light propose methods to evaluate, use and control this type of illumination, or otherwise to avoid it [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Methods For Spectral Evaluation Of Daylight Damage In Artworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced daylighting evaluation applied to cultural heritage buildings and museums: Application to the cloister of Santa Maria El Paular

et al. 2016

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“…Key seasonal dates that are often used for performing such analyses are the winter and summer solstices and the fall and spring equinoxes. Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of authors have argued the limitation of such an approach and advocated a more realistic systematic approach of evaluation, preferably hourly annual evaluation (de Hoyo-Meléndeza et al, 2011;Mardaljevic, 2000Mardaljevic, , 2006Mardaljevic et al, 2011).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Museum personnel often face the challenge of illuminating the museum environment while addressing the conservation requirements of museum objects (de Hoyo-Meléndeza et al, 2011). Whereas retrofitting ordinary non-historic old buildings can offer a number of possibilities for improving the ambient conditions and energy efficiency of buildings (Baker and Steemers, 2002), in a heritage building, a radical change to the original quality of daylight through extensive use of artificial light or displacement of daylight can have a critical impact on the visual character and sense of place (Al-Maiyah and Elkadi, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turkish D-light: accentuating heritage values with daylight

Al-Maiyah¹,

Elkadi²

2015

Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering History and Heritage

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2Historic buildings have their own cultural identity, which is often related to their aesthetic qualities such as period characteristics (geometry, size, colour, form and shape), materials and construction. Daylight is one of the primary elements contributing to the distinctiveness of the visual environment of many historic buildings, but is rarely considered as one of the components that shape the character of a building when adaptive preservation schemes of historical buildings are planned. Many historic buildings were originally designed to accommodate activities different to their new use and preserving the quality of daylight that originally contributed to their visual identity is a challenging task. Maintaining the 'day-lit appearance' of a building can be particularly problematic if the building is to be used as a museum or a gallery owing to the artefacts' conservation requirements. This work investigated the opportunities of maintaining the original ambient conditions of renovated historical buildings while meeting the required daylight levels of the proposed new use. The study utilised an annual daylight simulation method and hourly weather data to preserve daylight conditions in renovated historic buildings. The model was piloted in a Turkish bathhouse situated in Bursa, Turkey, that is currently under renovation. The simulation model produces 4483 hourly values of daylight illuminance for a period of a whole year using the computer program Radiance. It is concluded that daylight characteristics should be taken into account when developing a renovation scheme. With increasing pressure on valuing historic buildings in many parts of the world, the work reported here should be beneficial to those concerned with the conservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings. The study findings could also be useful to those interested in predicting potential energy savings by combining daylighting and electric lighting in historic buildings.

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“…However, as these buildings are often protected as "works of art" themselves, the installation and use of Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems is often a complex issue. In some cases, in the last century, simple heating solutions were installed, but the non-optimal design of these systems can also be responsible for inadequate microclimate (in particular spatial and temporal gradients of temperature and relative humidity) [15][16][17][18][19]. A series of European Projects [20][21][22] dealt with the retrofit actions of several existing museums to improve both internal air quality and energy efficiency.…”

Section: Existing Buildings As Museumsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Proposal for New Microclimate Indexes for the Evaluation of Indoor Air Quality in Museums

2016

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A correct artwork preservation requires strict values of several microclimate parameters, in particular temperature, humidity, and light. In existing museums, the evaluation of the effectiveness of current building plant systems and management is essential to avoid artwork deterioration. In this work, we propose the use of five simple performance indexes that use monitored data to estimate the suitability of the whole museum system in the maintenance of benchmark values of temperature, humidity, and light. The new indexes also take into account microclimate daily span and spatial homogeneity, which can represent a criticality in the preservative process. We apply these new indexes to the results of a monitoring campaign in Palazzo Blu, a museum in Pisa, which lasted for almost four months during a temporary exhibition on Toulouse-Lautrec works. The indexes show a mainly acceptable instantaneous microclimate, but HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) system improvement is necessary to avoid high thermo-hygrometric daily span. This methodology is useful for the identification of microclimate criticalities and can help the cooperation between conservation experts and professionals giving hints to improve museum internal microclimate. In case ofalready optimal microclimate, these indexes can be useful in more complex analyses, including simulations of possible retrofit actions, keeping microclimate suitability as a constraint.Keywords: indoor microclimate quality index; museum; monitoring campaign; HVAC system On Microclimate for Artwork PreservationArtworks need strict microclimate conditions to be preserved. Each typology of artwork (e.g., paper, frescoes, paintings, stones) needs specific microclimate conditions for their preservation; in general, typical environmental parameters to be controlled are:• maximum daily and seasonal temperature difference ( • C);• mean relative humidity (%);• maximum daily and seasonal relative humidity difference (%);• maximum allowed illuminance (lx).For each type of artwork, standards suggest suitable microclimate intervals [1][2][3]; in some cases, however, if the artifact has been acclimatized to a particular historical climate environment, it is preferable to maintain these conditions instead of standard intervals, to avoid climatic shocks of the artwork [4,5]. Technical standard UNI 10829 [1] lists acceptable values for illuminance and optimal and acceptable ranges for temperature and relative humidity (in some cases, it is not possible to achieve, at the same time, visitor comfort and correct conditions for artwork preservation [6]). The presence of dust and gaseous pollutants and microbial and UV radiations can also threaten artwork integrity [7][8][9].

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An evaluation of daylight distribution as an initial preventive conservation measure at two Smithsonian Institution Museums, Washington DC, USA

Cited by 39 publications

References 4 publications

Advanced daylighting evaluation applied to cultural heritage buildings and museums: Application to the cloister of Santa Maria El Paular

Advanced daylighting evaluation applied to cultural heritage buildings and museums: Application to the cloister of Santa Maria El Paular

Turkish D-light: accentuating heritage values with daylight

A Proposal for New Microclimate Indexes for the Evaluation of Indoor Air Quality in Museums

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