Moducel and Vapac for British Museum’s Japanese Gallery
Moducel air handling units and Vapac humidifiers are providing a fully air conditioned close control environment in the refurbished suite of galleries devoted to Japan at the British Museum.
The Japanese Galleries (rooms 92-94) re-opened in October 2006 on the theme of ‘Japan from prehistory to present’. The British Museum holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Japanese material in Europe, comprising fine and decorative art, antiquities and historical materials dating from ancient times to the present day.
A close control environment is essential for the collections both on display and those in storage. If the environment is too dry, paintings and fabrics will quickly dry out, flake and crack. Equally too much moisture can also have a detrimental affect.
The galleries for Japan, Prints and Drawings and Asia Temporary Exhibitions underwent a refurbishment in September 2005 as part of an on-going programme of gallery renewal. This provided the museum with the opportunity to re-new case linings, carpet and lighting, and re-design the various approaches to the galleries. At the same time, the museum decided to renovate the air conditioning system.
The museum’s consultants TGA Consulting Engineers, in close liaison with Museum’s Services Specialists recommended the replacement of the existing single air handling system with a more flexible solution that enabled room-by-room close control.
Access to the roof top plant room was restricted. Internally the route comprised narrow corridors, lifts and stairwells and externally the museum’s own grounds were not suitable for heavy cranes because of underground basements and weight restrictions. Cranes used on the public road would necessitate the closing of a major London road over several weekends.
Moducel’s experience of engineering flat pack systems provided the solution and overcame the hurdles posed by the plant room. As a result, David Reynolds, Partner at TGA and Moducel’s engineers, designed a solution to maximise the limited floor space and high ceiling and minimise disruption.
Nine LKS units were required to meet supply and extract requirements, with an equal number of Vapac LR resistive units with stainless steel cylinders that can cope with de-mineralised, softened or normal tap water, two Vapac osmosis units and a Simplex water softener as the museum is in a hard water area.
LKS units are manufactured horizontally, but the units for the Japanese Gallery feature an unusual ‘double tower’ configuration, to reduce their footprint and take advantage of the plant room’s high ceiling.
An innovative up-and-down ‘U-shaped’ format was configured with fresh air intake with re-circulated air entering at the top, going down through pre-filters and carbon filters then taking a 90° turn with cooling coil and fan discharging vertically through the re-heater and humidifier section to the supply duct connection at the top.
“The entire project took nine months and once installed the air conditioning system underwent five weeks of trials prior to the galleries re-opening to iron out any problems and ensure the correct temperature and humidity levels were maintained,” comments Alan Johnson, TGA’s Project Manager.
“The environment within the galleries is maintained year round at 21.5ºC and 53% RH +/- 5%. Planned preventative maintenance ensures that should any problems arise they will be flagged up early on and essential spares are kept on site” says Ashley Pursey, Project Manager for Romec Building Services.