Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden is the Netherlands’ national research institute for biodiversity.
In late 2019 Naturalis expanded to a stunning new building to enable it to welcome greater numbers of visitors and scientists alike, as well as housing every department of the institute in one place. The entire building was designed with sustainability in mind and includes 100% LED lighting with dynamic lighting control, solar panels, a geothermal heat pump system, sustainable ventilation, green roofs, an energy-friendly climate control system and gallery spaces with flexible layouts.
The extension to the existing Fons Verheijen-designed museum, which was completed in 1998, includes five floors of gallery space to display items from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center’s collection of forty-two million objects. The new gallery spaces are connected to the old building by the bright, airy atrium, which acts as both the public entrance for the museum as well as containing a large staircase that provides access to the exhibitions.
The new museum houses many interactive displays and needed flexible, powerful zoned show control. Pharos systems provide the perfect solutions for many of the new spaces to control not just the lighting, but also synced sound effects, and even animatronic exhibits.
- Two LPC 1s and a TPS provide lighting and synced sound control in LiveScience, as well as integration with two PTZ cameras
- An LPC 2 provides lighting control for Earth
- An LPC 1 and TPS give lighting, sound effect and seamlessly synchronised animatronic control in the Japanese Theatre
- An LPC 1 provides lighting control in Dinosaur Era
- An LPC 2 gives lighting in the area designated for temporary exhibitions
- A TPC offers tuneable white lighting for the central atrium, for sensitive human-centric white lighting throughout the day
Full credits:
Museum-wide AV-, lighting- and show control-consultancy: Rutger van Dijk, SemMika,
Exhibition Design: Pieter Aartsen (LiveScience, De aarde and van onschatbare waarde), Daniël Ament (Japans Theater) and Event Communications (Dinotijd)
Lighting Design: Pelle Herfst (LiveScience), Joost de Beij (De aarde and Japans Theater), Adam Grater DHA (Dinotijd), Kees van de Lagemaat (atrium) and Tim Blom (van onschatbare waarde)
Systems Integrators: Ata Tech, René Derksen
Programming: Rutger van Dijk and Erik de Wildt (voor LiveScience)
Photography: Naturalis Biodiversity Center
