MONA

The museum and collection

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in Tasmania, Australia. It houses the David Walsh collection, which ranges from ancient to contemporary art and contains artefacts as diverse as Egyptian sarcophagi and works by Wim Delvoye. Also part of the concept are the MONA Pavilions, where visitors are offered luxurious accomodation in designer hotel rooms.

The assignment

This project was awarded to us in a two-staged contract. After an Expression of Interest, we were selected out of several parties. Stage one covered the collaborative design development as well as the prototyping and testing of the display cases and associated equipment. This would lead to the detailed design fabrication and installation of the cases in stage two.

Some of the custom cases were installed indoors, while one concrete case called the Wunderkammer was installed outside the ROY pavilion. We designed this case together with contractor Aegres. It needed to have a power supply, climate controls and high level security. The case had to be weatherproof yet convenient to open. It had to provide the same conditions as an art gallery, with a stable temperature and humidity rate and glass that kept light intensity and UV-radiation well within conservation norms.

The project: challenges & result

All of this had to be managed within a tight budget. From the start, we worked in close collaboration with the museum’s exhibition designer to understand the client’s needs and expectations. Starting cooperation from the design phase was crucial in order to deliver this unique project to the customer’s complete satisfaction.