CIPA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey
Figure 4. Views of proposed first room: lower level (LEFT), upper level with 3D restoration views of the Acropolis (RIGHT)
4.1 The Present Situation at the Museum
The organization of the exhibition will be finished soon and the
Museum will begin operations soon after. The study for the
museum so far has been based on the existing exhibits,
something very common for most museums of Greece. The
study is focused on those parts of the archaeological site where
most of the finds were found and ignores locations with less
exhibits and the finds that are displayed in other museums.
In brief, the arrangement of the rooms of the museum is
mentioned (Figure 7): At the entrance hall there is an exhibition
with texts and photographs from excavations and the excavators
and a model of the Acropolis. At the first room there are
exhibits from houses inside and outside the Acropolis. At the
second room there are exhibits from the cemeteries. The most
important part, the Grave circle A, is missing, since the finds
from that part are kept at the National Archaeological Museum
in Athens. At the third room there are exhibits from periods
later than the Mycenean era and some groups of the finds
according to their use or their role in everyday life or in
religious ceremonies.
4.2 The Proposal for a new intervention at the Museum’s
arrangement
The proposed arrangement of the museum inquires the
possibility of breaking the ‘real’ space into different spatial
subunits, which will be related to its function (exhibits, public,
information, other uses). A scenario is created about the type
and level of multiple walk paths inside the museum. In order to
solve the problem of the limited available space, a good use of
its height is proposed: the visitor is smoothly led towards a
suspended rising corridor, where the information either is
provided by digital means or is mixed with the exhibits, thus
creating space and virtual images which provide all necessary
information for the better understanding of the site and its
history.
Within the existing space, the construction of an additional grid
is proposed which operates independently. So the natural level
with all the exhibits and the database of the museum with the
digital technology tools and the virtual images produced by
them acts separately. The basic elements of the new
arrangement of the museum space are: •
• The display of the finds is no longer based on their numbers
but on the excavation period. So the visiting
routes are similar to the paths the excavators followed.
Where this is possible, the walking path follows the ancient
route, resulting in a more direct approach.
• The existing exhibition, as an array of display cases along
the perimeter of the room, remains as such
• The suspended rising corridors act as transitional staircases
between the building and the pieces of work and they
organize the space by defining new relationships and tour
paths. This is achieved by projecting on the surface of the
corridors images of the finds.
• It is proposed that the constructions are made by a material
which fits well without absorbing light from the exhibits
• The various levels operate based on long distances and
optical axes
• The whole concept creates flexible spaces, able to accept
new exhibits that will be found in the future.
An application that can combine all existing and virtual
information is shown in Figure 8 and transforms the rooms as
following:
• The entrance of the museum at first level brings the visitor
to the natural space surrounding the Acropolis, through
some open areas, while it prepares him/her for the further
walk path along the suspended rising corridors and the
screens for video projections, where 3D models of the
fortifications are projected
• The pass to the first room offers the choice of either
selecting to visit the conventional exhibition (lower level)
or the “new space” (upper level). The second choice leads
the visitor to a path where screens present perspectively 3D
representations of the site and, through the openings he/she
can observe exhibits displayed in cases (Figure 4). At the
end of this route, the visitor will be at the same lower level
that he/she was at the beginning and can go on to the second
room, where
• the space created is structurally composed of transverse ribs
which embody cabling for data transmission, an LCD
screen for viewing finds through laser scanner, not found in
situ due to the fact they are exhibited in other museums.
The whole system will have different purposes depending
on how one wants to converse, actively communicate or
passively watch. With a route similar to the one in the first
hall, the visitor finds himself watching representations of
arched and vaulted graves
• At the third room the visitor can watch, in a specially
structured space, through an SIS, the excavation phases of
