There are no less than three Guggenheim museums around the world, placed in in New York, Venice and Bilbao. The museum was designed by architect Frank O. Gehry in the deconstructivist style, a modern, avant-garde style of architecture characterised by slanting walls, intersecting building elements and sloping or rising ceilings. The impressive 9,000 sq.m. exhibition space holds works of art in the form of paintings, sculptures, installations and video art – predominantly masterpieces of the 20th Century.
Following the refurbishment of the lighting system, the exhibition spaces have been given a new lease of life, thanks to an LED lighting solution from Zumtobel, who replaced the previous lighting system and achieved new levels of efficiency and light quality. To meet the museum’s technical and financial requirements, Zumtobel developed a custom-made product that can be used as a wallwasher, spotlight, very narrow spotlight and projector.
The most important lighting task in the museum is the perfect highlighting of the essence or shape of an exhibit. The excellent performance of Zumtobel’s wallwasher spotlight in particular impressed the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: in the exhibition areas, with ceilings up to 12 metres high, the luminaire offers the perfect mix of finely accented and large-scale lighting, together with uniform light distribution throughout combined with outstanding colour rendering (Ra > 96). Additional spotlights illuminate the artworks sensitively and precisely. UV- and IR-free light protects the exhibits, three colour temperatures, 3000 K, 3500 K and 4000 K, showcase the artworks perfectly. In addition, a special filter can be used to create diffuse light and oval light distribution.
