News

IES Award of Merit for Technical Museum

We are delighted that the Technical Museum received the IES Award of Merit 2021. The Museum, situated in the Zagreb city centre on the crossroad of two busy streets, was constituted as a scientific museum with educational character in 1954, even before the well-known Exploratorium was opened in San Francisco, which was a notable cultural project worldwide. The demonstration cabinet promotes the life and work of Nikola Tesla, and the lighting design concept reflects this fact with a dynamic blue light that represents the famous Colorado coil effect. This effect is programmed to appear every hour for about 15 seconds. The building is otherwise illuminated by a completely concealed and integrated linear lighting system within architecture containing two independent rows of linear light, two different colour temperatures each adequate to surface it illuminates. This important cultural landmark is categorized as a cultural heritage protected by the Croatian Ministry of Culture. Therefore, the designers were even more oriented toward the solutions which will look unobtrusive and preserve the original appearance, so the custom metal gutter was mounted and painted in the facade colour in which the luminaires were mounted. Landscape lighting is performed by recessed floor lamps and surface-mounted reflectors to illuminate several exterior exhibits and trees. The small substation, which contains blue light, contributes to the overall lighting solution. The elegance and simplicity of the architectural lighting create an enjoyable atmosphere in the Museum's courtyard and the illuminated facade makes a pleasant visual sight seen from the busy avenue. The integration of the fixtures and the dynamic of the lighting system affirms the technical and technological aspects of the Museum and adds value to it and the inventor's name it carries.