The exhibition was all based on the history of Valletta, traversing through the ages conveying messages through images and and exhibits. The exhibition was split into several different sub sections all hosting different exhibits from different time periods. I believe there were 2 main rooms, 2 smaller rooms and a corridor.
The place was was absent of natural light even the windows where covered over, only letting light slip in to the cracks around the edges. As for the artificial lighting the place was filled with bright spotlights and little ambient light. The hard lights created equally hard shadows surrounding the exhibited pieces.
There where also some direct spotlights on the smaller objects to show their importance. Another neat trick using lights were the end of the parquet "pathways" instead of leaving the path cut abruptly at the wall they created these 3 standing slabs that with lighting behind them, these can be seen to the below.
Upon entering the exhibition you enter a dark section with small lights stationed at the top.
The floors where mainly made up of a soft brown parquet flooring and blue carpets. The two materials contrasted greatly but blended well together. The parquet was mainly used in creating subliminal guides directing the visitors into all the rooms. This was effective in ways of reducing clutter and bright guiding colours of signage whilst keeping the traditional colours and well rounded consistency.
The only sounds present was the feature on the history of Valletta which was displayed on 2 independent screens next to each other. It wasn't that long so it didn't bore you, The sound and setting of the small theater was relaxing and informative. The other sound was when entering a small room displaying a traditional Maltese shelter setting with sounding air raids indicating a general setting of what one would feeling of being there at that time.
There was a slight smell of humidity, I don't think it was intentional just the place was old and such a smell would be inevitable.
The space was really clustered in my opinion not giving enough breathing room to view the pieces without catching another of the surrounding objects. The exhibited items where placed everywhere, freestanding sculptures in the center of the room to hanging murals on the wall.
In a sense the place was very evenly distributed, even the curator himself stated that the objects where placed in symmetry. The smaller rooms where dedicated to smaller pieces simple cabinets and cases. Other bigger objects had their own space in another main but smaller room, such as a presidential table and a 9 foot statue.
There where also some partitions present, one was used to separate one side of the room to another also serving as a place to hang one of the largest paintings. And another to create a sub space to hang pictures
The place is easily accessable by everyone, there are no stairs so usage of wheelchairs would cause no hindrance. The doors are a little thin which could cause some congestion when too many people are present, as we were roughly 40 students alone it occurred at some points.
Nothing really caught my eye other than one of which was displayed on the feature. There was a little circle in the top right corner which gradually formed depending on how much time has passed from the feature, that way people entering would be able to gauge how much time is left without having to guess. There was also a constant feature being projected onto an arch on the ceiling. This helped in removing the vast empty space and also added some movement, but not over doing it. Another thing is that it was placed on top of one of the supporting wooden pieces, out of the way from any persons view.
Activity oriented design - During our visit it was a little crowded but I don't think the place was catered for some much people at any time, we did get around without much trouble but my opinion was that it was a little too crowded.
There where also forms of signage found around the room, the exhibitions creators stated that they wanted to keep the words minimal to let the exhibited items speak for them selves. The ones displayed on the wooden slabs complimented the rest of the exhibits design. It seemed like it was emerging from the parquet floor giving offering a sense of continuity, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb. The typography was in white and clearly readable.
The exhibition also sported wall stickers , one of which was placed along the width of the wall and flipped to be placed on the opposite one. They didn't use another picture because they didn't have one but such little techniques could remove the repetitiveness and keep its consistency. Other wall stickers where a little less subtle holding bright colours showing a different meaning, this could be used to indicate a change in environment and exhibited pieces. On the other hand some subtle wall stickers were present using architectural plans with low opacity just not to leave the wall bear and keeping focus on the exhibited pieces.
Saftey measures where found throughout the exhibition space hosting bright red fire extinguishers, clearly visible exit signs and also sprinklers.
The exhibition was very interesting with a lot too see, I might have been to relaxed to take fully observe and take better note of the surroundings and other key elements as I had still not finished going around when I found the rest of the class outside. Overall it was a wonderful experience.
