The Natural History Museum Bern opens its laboratory wing as a new permanent exhibition. “Wunderkammer – the display collection.” Behind thick glass, the wet collection is presented in room-high shelving. Densely filled with preserved organic material, it is the source from which specimens will be taken into test tubes for scientific examination in the adjacent laboratories. This valuable exhibition is also a highly technological workplace, and the lighting had to be realised within a tightly defined framework of spatial requirements, conservation values, and safety regulations. The room is cooled down to 12° Celsius, and because of the risk of explosion caused by the formaldehyde content, no electrical installations are permitted below a certain height above the floor. Display-case lighting under extreme conditions. Bathed in warm light against a cool white laboratory backdrop, the exhibits tell their story of the concrete existence they once had and the abstract scientific basis they have become.
