Lesson video

Hi, my name is Mr. Brown.

Welcome to today's lesson.

We are going to be looking at Museum Gallery Prototypes today, and we'll be thinking about what museum galleries are, any museum galleries that you might know about, and we'll be thinking about how to make a prototype of a museum gallery, and indeed why designers actually do prototypes of museum galleries.

What is the purpose? Why do they do it? And there's going to be a huge amount of practical activities today.

So we'll be learning about different skills, we'll be thinking about different knowledge of museum galleries and layouts and things like that.

And then there'll be an opportunity for you to be doing lots of practical work today.

Right, without further ado, what we're going to do is go on and look at the learning outcome, the learning cycles and the keywords.

Today's learning outcome is to create a model museum gallery prototype.

And the keywords today.

Well, first keyword is gallery, a room inside a museum that displays objects.

Artefact, that's an object displayed in a museum.

And prototype, a simple, low-cost model made to check size, shape, and function.

And we've got two learning cycles in today's lesson.

So the first learning cycle is museum galleries and the second learning cycle is museum gallery prototypes.

So we're going to be thinking about what museum galleries are and then we're gonna be thinking about how to make prototypes from them.

And of course, we're going to start today with learning cycle one, which is museum galleries.

Right, so museums are found in nearly every town or city, and some can even be up mountains or on small islands.

They can be in all sorts of places that you could have some in villages, they could be places of interest, that of historical interest.

They could be collections of different things in big cities, small cities, they're found everywhere and they can be in historic or in modern buildings.

Quite often you'll think about a museum as being a very historic building, often built in Victorian times.

But as you can see from the picture on the right-hand side here, we've got a picture of the Titanic Museum in Belfast, and that's a very modern building.

Looks a fantastic piece of architecture and is specifically designed in a way, I'm sure you can understand how, to think about its boating history.

But museums, like I said, can be big, they can be small but mainly they are places to help us understand about the world and the past.

So it could be things that are still modern day, but it could be a history of computing, for example.

But it could also be thinking about history of the natural world and could be all sorts of different aspects of learning modern and in the past.

Now, each museum is designed differently and often linked to a focus.

So you might have some museums that are art museums, they might be history museums, they might be science museums, and they might be animal museums. Now, some museums will host all different sorts of things.

They might have art and historical objects, or they might have science objects and animal objects, or they might just be focusing upon one particular area.

So some cities will have many, many different museums each dedicated to one of these areas or other areas.

Whereas you might have some cities or towns or villages that actually have a museum that's actually got a whole host of different areas, and they've all got different rooms where they've got different artefacts in.

Now the building might reflect what the museum displays.

So there's some natural history museums, for example, that have got animal sculptures on them.

And so the actual building design reflects what's actually going to be inside.

Going back to the previous slide, for example, the Titanic Museum, that's specifically designed to be the Titanic Museum because we are thinking about the different shapes and actually the location as well, the fact that it's by the dock side is really hugely important.

Some other designs of buildings, they might not have that, but this is just to say that some designers and architects think very carefully about the style of the building so it reflects what's going to be inside.

Now, we've got a picture here of a natural history museum.

There might be rooms about dinosaurs, mammals, birds, geology, and much more.

So there might be when you go into a really big natural history museum that you might find some rooms where you've got just dinosaurs in or just mammals or just birds or insects or amphibians there, and they separate them and they really try very hard to make sure that certain animal types are just in one room.

Now each of these rooms is called a gallery and they contain artefacts that are displayed in them.

Now remember, galleries are specific types of room that host the same sort of things inside, and artefacts are those things that displayed inside.

And if you look at the picture there, that's got lots of dinosaurs displayed in this one particular room.

Okay, check for understanding now.

What is a room in a museum called? Is it A, an exhibit, B, an artefact, C, a gallery, or D, a guide? Which do you think it is? That's right, well done.

It's a gallery.

So the gallery is the room.

So you might have some exhibits and artefacts in it, you might have a guide in it, but the actual room is called a gallery.

Right, so each gallery considers how to move users throughout the room without causing problems and ensuring access to all of the users.

Now what we'd like to do is I think about that sentence very carefully and consider what that actually does mean because we're going to be talking about that now.

So I'd like you to consider what does it mean to move users throughout the room without causing problems? And what does it mean to ensure access to all users? So, what problems do you think there would be for a museum with lots of exhibits, lots of artefacts and lots of people? So what do you think the problems would actually be? Have a discussion now and then we'll come up with some thoughts and ideas in a moment.

Right, welcome back.

I hope you've got some really good ideas now about or thought about all of the different problems that there might be for a museum with lots of artefacts and people going into it.

So how do we make sure that everyone is safe and what sort of issues do you think we can actually come up with? So Andeep's come up with one and he said that, "Lots of people looking at the same thing could cause crowding." So some of the museums that I've been to in the past has definitely been an issue.

One example might be seeing the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre in Paris.

That's a really popular artefact and exhibit that people want to see.

So that is a real problem when we've got lots of people wanting to see one small painting.

Aisha's also come up with an issue that, "People in wheelchairs will not be able to use the stairs." So if there's lots of stairs in the museum, how can we ensure that we've got access for everybody? And she's absolutely right that we've got to think about that as a problem.

Okay, so if we know some of the problems, what are some of the solutions? What I'd like you to do now is to consider the problems that you came up with and consider some solutions for those problems. So what the issues were, how can you find the solutions? So spend some time now thinking about how you would solve some of the problems with lots of exhibits and artefacts and lots of people visiting museum.

Okay, Andeep's come up with a suggestion.

So remember he was talking about lots of people crowding around one particular artefact or exhibit, and he suggested that, "There could be a one-way system for people to follow and a large space for popular artefacts." Now a really good idea is that's exactly what happens with the "Mona Lisa" in Paris, in the Louvre, where they have a one-way system.

So they actually have a rope that you actually just follow and you just queue up and you just follow the rope all the way down, and sometimes there's hardly anybody in there and so you get straight to the front, sometimes it's just a matter of queuing.

I've been there before in the past and actually it was a big scrum around where the Mona Lisa was and it was quite difficult to access.

There's a much fairer way of accessing it by having this system.

But it's not just that, it could be that there's a one-way system throughout the museum itself.

So throughout the gallery itself, how can actually people walk around the museum? I think that's really important 'cause you can almost guide your users through a museum gallery.

So that's a really good idea, Andeep, well done.

Aisha's got an idea for, remember she was talking about how people in wheelchairs might find it really difficult and particularly if there's stairs.

So she's decided that having ramps and lifts would to be added would make sure that everyone can access the museum.

Now you might have come up with other problems and other solutions.

One of the problems I mentioned earlier was about how small children would find it really hard to actually access some of the exhibits if all of the displays are up high.

And young children love going to museums, so we need to make sure that we're accessing it for everybody.

There's lots of different ideas, lots of different problems and lots of different solutions as well to the problems. And this is why designers have lots of aspects to think about when they're designing a gallery to display museum artefacts.

It's not just that they bring stuff in, put it into a room, and then open it up for the public.

There is a lot of thought and design into it.

So Sam has got the question, "How can everyone see the artefacts?" Sofia, "How do people get in the gallery? How do they move around? How do they get out?" And Alex, "How do we stop crowding?" So all these things we've spoken about already, but I think they're really worth reiterating that all of these different aspects are worth considering when we're designing a museum gallery.

Okay, check for understanding.

Where possible, how can museums be inclusive? Is it A, they can have ramps and lifts, B, they can have lots of stairs, C, they can have lots of artefacts, or D, they can have galleries.

So which do you think is about a museum being inclusive? That's right, they can have ramps and they can have lifts.

That's a way of really being inclusive.

The other ways are not necessarily being inclusive, but they are examples of things that you might actually have in museums. Okay, before making the museum gallery, designers will often make a prototype.

So this is a simple model, and that's often made of card 'cause it's nice and easy to use and you could even make one from a shoebox or a small box, and here's just some examples.

You are gonna be making your own.

But before we start making it, what we're gonna do is to start considering about the layout of your shoebox museum gallery.

And what I'd like you to do is to think very carefully about the following parts of this design specification for a shoebox museum gallery.

So the appearance, what is it going to look like? Remember we talked about how some museums are actually designed on the interior and exterior to reflect what actually is inside their museum? So you need to first of all think what is my museum gallery going to contain? What is going to be inside it? And what is it going to look like? So function, what will go in the gallery? So what actual artefacts are you going to put in and where are you actually going to put them? User, who is this gallery designed for? So who is this actually for? Who do you hope will actually come in? If it's for everybody, that's fine.

But you need to make sure then that there's access for everybody.

If it's just for younger children, then perhaps you need to think very carefully about how you make that interesting to younger children.

If it is for everybody, how are you going to make sure that it's inviting for everybody? Performance, how will everyone be able to get around the gallery? This is the real practical thing that we spoke about in the last few slides.

How can you ensure access for everybody? How can you ensure that there's no overcrowding? How are you going to design your gallery very carefully? Next one, materials, what will the gallery be made from? Now when we talk about this, we're talking about the museum prototype.

So what is the prototype gonna be made of? What are your artefacts we made of? What are you going to be using? Now, often we try to use card for this, but you might want to think about some other mixed materials as well.

But card is just so readily available, it's easy to use, it's easy to join.

And remember, this is a prototype.

And lastly, environment, how are you gonna reduce, reuse and recycle? So how can the materials that you choose to use, how can you make sure that that's got a minimum disruption on the environmental impact? Okay, I'm gonna stop talking now, I'm gonna let you get on.

And I hope you enjoy thinking about this.

Remember, all we're asking you to do is just talk about this with a partner, thinking about exactly what is it that you are going to do.

Come up with all your ideas, change your ideas if you want to, but have a good discussion about what it is you hope to do.

Okay, welcome back.

So now this class thought hard about what the museum gallery was going to make and the artefacts are gonna be displayed and how it's gonna meet the needs of the user.

So Laura said that her gallery's gonna have green walls so that when she's got her dinosaur skeletons that they're actually going to show up against the green walls.

If she had white, she be worried that the white wouldn't show up as much.

Izzy said that her T-Rex is gonna be in the centre of the gallery so everyone can see it.

And that's gonna help with making sure that people can move around as well.

And this is similar to what Jun has just said, that his gallery is going to have large open spaces and ramps so everyone can get around.

Some really good discussions there, and I've got a feeling that their museum gallery is gonna look great.

Right, that is the end of task A.

So we're gonna be moving on to lesson cycle two now, but I hope that you've got lots and lots of different ideas.

And here's lesson cycle two, museum gallery prototypes.

We're actually gonna be making these now.

So when we are making a shoebox gallery, we can use a range of materials.

But remember, this is a prototype, so we are gonna try and use as minimal resources as possible.

So you'll probably want a cardboard box, some scrap materials, maybe even some scrap bits of wood if you wanted to.

But try to reuse and reduce the amount of materials you're gonna be using.

So, check for understanding, what materials can be used to make a museum gallery prototype? Is it A, glitter, B, sequins, C, cardboard, or D, plastic? That's right, it's cardboard.

We're not gonna use glitter, sequins and plastic because they're not really great for the environment, but certainly for a prototype, we're not thinking about finishing touches necessarily right now, we're thinking about just cardboard, just using cardboard to get an idea of the structure and where things are gonna go.

And of course, we can think about different joining techniques.

Now this depends upon the materials you use, but if we're using card, you're likely to use glue and masking tape.

You might use Pritt Stick, you might use PVA glue, you might use masking tape, you might use another type of tape.

Masking tape might be one of the better types of tape, however, because we can actually still move things about a bit, allows us a bit more flexibility to move objects if we don't like where they are.

Whereas some stickier tape might actually be a bit more challenging and it might actually tear off some of the cardboard of where we've put it.

Now you've got to think about which ways you think are best to join and shape the materials? Another check for understanding here.

So what joining materials can be used to make a museum gallery prototype? Are we going to use PVA glue, masking tape, Computer Aided Design, or sewing needle? For this task, which ones are we going to be using? There's a clue there, there's actually two answers.

That's right, PVA glue and masking tape.

You can actually use Computer Aided Design to actually design a museum gallery prototype.

But for this task, we are not using Computer Aided Design, we're actually going to be doing this out of card and making an actual prototype.

Remember, a prototype will be using inexpensive materials rather than Computer Aided Design.

So here is your task B, so I'd like you to make a shoebox museum gallery prototype using your knowledge of materials and joining techniques and thinking about the design specification.

Let's go through that again.

So appearance, what will it look like? Function, what will go in it? Where will it go? User, who will the gallery be designed for? Performance, how will everyone be able to get around? So thinking very carefully about where everything is.

And materials, what will the gallery be made from? And environment, how can we reduce, reuse and recycle? Right, this is the big bit now.

You've talked about your ideas, you've got some really good ideas in your brains and you're ready to get on.

So with those shoeboxes or boxes and lots of card, material and glue and tape, let's start making.

Let's start making those shoebox galleries, and I look forward to giving you some feedback when you're finished.

Off you go, and enjoy yourselves.

Welcome back.

So Year Six have produced a shoebox gallery prototype ready for the artefacts to be displayed.

And Laura said that her shoebox gallery has display cases all the way around the edge.

So she thought, "Actually, I'm gonna have my display cases around the edge." Izzy, her gallery has got walls that guide people around, so she's added some internal walls to her shoebox.

And Jun, well, he's got a ramp, and there's only one way in and one way out.

So they go in one way and they come out another, and it's got a sort of a one-way system to make sure that everybody's safe.

Really good ideas from those three.

Well done them.

And well done you, I'm sure you've come up with lots of different ideas, lots of different ways to solve this problem.

You've done fantastically today.

I hope you've really enjoyed it.

I'm sure you have.

It's been very, very practical, and I look forward to hearing about all of the different designs that you've actually done.

Well done today, really pleased with what you've done.

In summary, let's go through it very quickly.

So museum galleries are designed purposefully.

Museum gallery layouts consider users and artefacts.

The choice of materials have to be considered for their purpose.

And choice of joining materials have to be considered for their purpose.

Thank you very much for being with me today.

I hope you've had a great time making these museum gallery prototypes.

I'm sure you have.

I'm sure you've had lots of enjoyment and you've learned a huge amount and you've tried different things.

And sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but you're able to change them.

That's the whole point of having a prototype.

Well done, and I look forward to speaking to you next time.