Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery
A permanent exhibition that addresses the rapid energy transition required to reduce climate change on a global scale, the gallery features objects and digital exhibits that highlight how we can journey towards a low carbon world.
Working in collaboration with global design studio Unknown Works, Nulty’s lighting response reinforces the aspiration set by The Science Museum Group and Unknown Works to employ circular economy principles in the design process. The scheme features repurposed light fittings from the museum’s previous exhibition, alongside luminaires sourced from manufacturers with proven sustainability and circularity credentials. Across the entire gallery, illuminance levels were carefully managed to deliver an immersive and easy to navigate environment, with minimal lighting interventions.
At the entrance to the space, a single light bulb denotes the start of the experience and draws the eye to an inscription on the wall that conveys the message – ‘it all starts with an idea’. Activated by PIR sensors, the light bulb slowly turns on, then pulsates to create a pause point where visitors can reflect on the role that energy plays in our lives.
Inside the circular gallery, the lighting design helps to improve permeability and animate key moments along the user journey. Track mounted spotlights positioned in the gantry soffit direct light onto the interactive displays, and framing projectors accentuate objects of interest. Both solutions feature components that were repurposed from the preceding exhibition. The spotlights are powered by the existing tracks from the base build, while the framing projectors have been retrofitted with LEDs to replace the original halogen lamps.
Spotlights on hooks illuminate the space above the plinths further down and provide a comfortable layer of ambient light. Designed to safeguard the artefacts on show, each LED luminaire has been fitted with a special lens and honeycomb louvre to minimise glare. The individual plinths also feature human scale illumination in the form of stem-mounted spotlights, which produce halos of light across the information plates.
The centrepiece of the Energy Revolution experience is a kinetic sculpture entitled Only Breath. Created by artists Alexandra Carr and Colin Rennie from Torus Torus Studios, the installation represents the fusion between energy technology and natural processes and comprises a frame structure with multiple semi-transparent plates and two-way mirrors. As the sculpture slowly expands and retracts, spotlights were positioned around the piece to direct warm amber light onto the surfaces and cast shadows across the central area.
Elsewhere in the gallery, visitors can view a huge quadrant from the Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly (ZETA), a nuclear fusion experiment by British scientists in the late 1950s. Here, dynamic light emanates out of the quadrant to create a sense of movement that subtly alludes to the power of the artifact.
Another interactive display provides an opportunity to experience the full scale of a parabolic trough solar mirror, and in this space, the team offset the circular form of the trough with a vertical light box. The backlit wall emits a diffuse yellow glow to reference the energising force of the sun and bounce light onto the soffit above. The space is further intensified by linear projectors mounted above the lightbox, angled to direct light onto the trough and form golden pools of light on the floor.
