On Friday I visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery (designed by Sir John Soane whose museum I visited a couple of weeks ago) and the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the research I am doing into different gallery spaces. The Dulwich Picture Gallery is on a far smaller scale than the V&A, so its architecture reflects this. The gallery has a clear main axis with arches separating the galleries, though they are so big that the separation is more ideological that actual. This is different when looking at the rooms that have been added through the galleries history. The separation of these rooms from the main gallery is more apparent, not only in the colour they are painted but also in their shape and the doorways that seperate them.
The thing that struck me about the gallery was that it housed a mausoleum. This was dedicated to those who made the gallery possible, the benefactors and the founder of the Dulwich college, in whose legacy the gallery was built. This is not something that I would use in my own design. Some things that I will consider in my own design based on this is the importance of lighting. Dulwich is one of the first examples of using ceiling windows so that there is less direct sunlight that could damage the works on show, and also to allow more wall space.
The layout of the V&A as well as its scale mean that it is far easier to get lost and loose sense of direction in the gallery, which I did a few times. In many of the galleries within the museum the exhibits themselves, within their glass cases, create the walls. In many of the rooms it is obvious to see that the layouts and designs of the spaces have changed over the years. Much of the original architecture is covered by the displays, and artificial light is used and natural light is blocked.
