Quadzero Protects Mood In Melbourne Museum Gallery
The challenges
The City of Melbourne is home to the award-winning Melbourne Museum, which has a permanent collection on display across eight galleries, including one specifically designed for children.
The Museum is currently redeveloping one of its galleries for the upcoming ‘World War I (WWI) exhibition Love and Sorrow’. As the gallery adjoins the museum’s children’s gallery the location prompted museum management to consider ideas to reduce noise emanating from the children’s gallery to provide a quieter, comfortable and memorable viewing experience for visitors.
Noise from the children’s gallery was very obtrusive, not confined to one source but from a combination of multimedia noise and large groups of people.
Museum management viewed this as a significant problem as the loud noise was of a very different mood than what was desired in the new gallery. The new WWI gallery demanded a sombre and contemplative mood; quite at odds with the adjoining children’s gallery that encouraged boisterous behaviour and interaction through multimedia and other displays.
The solutions
Museum management engaged the services of Pyrotek to specify and install a suitable solution.
After consultation, an acoustic curtain made from flagship flexible mass-barrier Quadzero was specified. The curtain was installed on the dividing wall to seal any gaps between the galleries, which was known to be the main source of noise transfer.
The results
Feedback provided by Melbourne Museum staff was extremely positive. The installation lowered the ambient noise level in the gallery significantly. The main sources of ambient noise from a multimedia exhibit in an adjacent Mind Gallery and large groups of noisy schoolchildren were no longer noticeable.
Overall, Museum management was extremely satisfied with the acoustic performance and look of the acoustic curtain when fully installed.
The sombre mood was upheld where visitors were able to feel the true impact and pay respect to the display it deserved.
