Exhibition design: An overview

The Maritime Museum extension being built to house Blue Water Black Magic – A Tribute to Sir Peter Blake is the most significant development in the history of the museum since it opened its doors in 1993. Prior to the opening in December 2009, we’ll be using our blog to present you with the thoughts of some of the key players in this historic exhibition. First up is Pete Bossley (of Pete Bossley Architects) who has been involved in the design of the project for six years.

Pete is one of New Zealand’s most respected architects, with particular experience in galleries and museums having worked as the joint principal responsible for Te Papa’s architecture design and documentation while he was a director at Jasmax. He has exhibited and lectured extensively on his work in New Zealand and overseas, including Tokyo,Vancouver, Santiago, and Australia. He has also taught architectural design for over 25 years, and was Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Unitec Architecture and Landscape School.

Pete Bossley: “On a calm evening at midnight, NZL32 will be barged across from its temporary home on Halsey Street Wharf to be lifted onto a temporary platform cantilevered out over the water, rolled in through an opening with only a 150mm clearance in the northern façade and hoisted up into place inside the building, where it will be suspended by its own rigging from the roof.”

And with that, the jewel in the crown of the Maritime Museum’s extension will be in place. NZL32 of course, is the yacht which first won the Americas Cup for New Zealand, which the Team New Zealand 2000 Trust gifted to the nation under the care of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The yacht will be the centrepiece of this new exciting exhibition.

Pete says the interior composition of the extension will consist of two main spaces and “visitors will enjoy a range of experiences as they pass from one space to the other, moving from dark to light to dark, and rising up and around the exhibits.”

He continues: “The large interior space, extended upwards to accommodate one third of the mast of NZL32, is softly lit with low natural light levels. The yacht is the predominant feature of this gallery and is suspended from the roof. The outer space will display many small archetypal yachts, and is lit beautifully by day with natural light passing through the softly-coloured translucent wall panels.”

A 100 metre long ramp will then lead visitors up and around the yachts, before moving back into the darker main space. Here the ramp continues to wind up and around NZL32, providing views of the hull and rigging from below, and above.

Pete says the external design respects the existing 1993 shed-like buildings and expands them with a series of dynamic screens which visually ‘float’ above the water and reach diagonally out from the existing buildings. “It clearly expresses a new era and changing attitudes, without diminishing the value of the original buildings. “

The screens are constructed of steel framing clad with a series of softly coloured multi-cell polycarbonate panels to absorb and transmit natural light, to give a subtle series of maritime light effects.

Pete is delighted by the ephemeral light qualities the building is starting to offer, and the way it responds internally and externally to the shifting of sunlight. “The next stages, the installation of NZL32 and of the exhibits prepared by WorkshopE, will provide additional satisfaction over the next few months.”

Satisfaction for a great many people, Pete.

New beginnings - Welcome to the NZ Maritime Museum blog

Keeping up to date with the New Zealand National Maritime Museum just got a whole lot easier with the launch of this – our weekly blog! Our website www.maritimemuseum.co.nz has had a bit of a facelift over recent months, and this blog is the next evolution in its design and function.

You can expect exhibition announcements and insights, behind-the-scene previews and interviews with key Maritime Museum contributors, and debate and discussion on topical issues. Interactivity is a feature of the Maritime Museum experience, and that extends to our blog too – so feel free to comment on our posts, and suggest topics that you’d like to see featured, and we’ll do our best to oblige.

New exhibitions on display right now

There’s been a fair bit of buzz around the Maritime Museum in recent weeks with the opening of two new exhibitions in our temporary exhibition space, the Bob Croker Gallery. First out of the blocks was “Farewell to Sails – remembering the last days of the sailing ships”. Created by the Aland Maritime Museum of Finland, the exhibition commemorates the 60th anniversary of the last voyage around Cape Horn by the last of the Finnish windjammers - Passat and Pamir. Transporting grain from South Australia to the UK via Cape Horn, these grand sailing ships attracted notoriety for the betting games that followed their race to their destination – the infamous ‘Grain Races’.

Left: A number of Kiwi sailors who sailed aboard Pamir during the 1940s helped us launch the exhibition, and here our CEO Paul Evans (far left) is seen with (l-r) Captain George Gunn, Ron Montgomery and Pat Ross.

Right: Captain George Gunn and Pat Ross look over some familiar faces from their days aboard Pamir, whilst she sailed under the New Zealand flag.

Pamir has particularly strong links to New Zealand, being seized as a prize of war by the NZ Government in 1941! She went on to sail under the NZ ensign for 8 years and 160,000 miles, all the while capturing the imagination of a country. More than 240 New Zealanders crewed her during this period – some of whom have contributed oral histories to the exhibition. Full details of the exhibition, which will on display into Summer 2010, can be found here.

No rest for the wicked

No sooner had we launched ‘Farewell to Sails’ than planning went into overdrive to prepare a second temporary display for opening - ‘Spanish Expeditions to the South Pacific in the 16th – 18th centuries'. This came complete with royalty in the form of a visit by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, who were on an official New Zealand visit to open the Spanish Embassy in Wellington.

Left: King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain cast an eye over our new exhibition.

Spain’s involvement in the early exploration of the South Pacific is not especially well documented, yet evidence and speculation exist which point to Spain’s proto-discovery of New Zealand long before Cook, by a boat that was subsequently lost at sea. The ‘one that got away’ to beat all others, perhaps.

This exhibition has been mounted to commemorate both the 400th anniversary of Spanish expeditions to the South Pacific and also, to honour the spirit and vigour that brought Spanish sailors to uncharted Pacific waters. It’s on display until September in the Bob Croker Gallery, and you can read more about it here.