Guinness Storehouse Exhibition Design Designers: London Based Imagination. Architects: Dublin-based Robinson Keefe Devane (RKD).

DISPLAY AND INTERACTION

Imaginations Life is a suite of films produced by Imagination which were to purvey a sense of the craic. Having been immersed in the extraordinary ground-floor hall of brewing equipment, the visitor finds an intimate room surrounded by local sounds, conversations, stories and music taken from radio archives and combined with resonant graphic images. The films are at once extraordinarily rich in their power to evoke the qualities of the Irish. The images are incomplete therefore demanding and active and creative engagement. The visitor chooses an individual route through the fabric of the building. The selective and appropriate use of technology plays an important role in the design of this audience-focused experience. Narrative has been central to exhibition design in recent times. It is about ordering objects in a space in a way that tells a story. In that sense exhibition design is regularly defines as narration. The making of narrative space involves readings between objects or the making of displays which build a background storyline to the objects on display. There is an emphasis on creating a storyline which evokes an emotional response as a key component of the experience. Clearly this is working from the psychology of advertising: colours, sounds, patterns of slow and fast movements play a key role in creating a memorable engagement with the object. The way in which the exhibition installation is structures needs to facilitate the intended narrative. The architecture of an exhibition opens up new possibilities to the exhibition. One of the most distinctive features of the building is the 102-foot-high atrium carved out of the centre of the building in the shape of a giant pint glass. Exhibitions tell the story of Arthur Guinness and a spectacular account of how Guinness is made is given. The entrance is stripped back to the bare masonry of its perimeter walls. Original brewing equipment reinforces a sense of belonging to the Dublin community. The exhibition takes visitor the stages of the brewing process, starting with the ingredients used to make Guinness, and then to accounts of the export and consumption of the product around the world. On all levels, graphics and lighting combine with particular effect, defining the journey through the darkened spaces. Large-scale graphics are applied to the existing walls and windows the building itself is a vehicle for communication rather than simply a support for informative panels. With the use of interactive devices throughout the exhibition, visitors are encourages to listen, watch, touch, smell and finally taste as the experience is made tangible through actual physical engagement. This is evident at the Waterfall where images of the brand character are interwoven with the natural ingredients of Guinness while the sound of the flowing water creates a powerful backdrop to the exhibition. In the display of Guinness Advertisements, visitors can move between interactive screens, and the idea of advertising is explored through graphics - here, graphics is conceived as a three-dimensional field that weaves between other display elements. Words, arrows and colour become architecture themselves. Some screens are placed within the industrial equipment that was salvaged for the purpose. Others are built into display structures which integrate information with the history of the brand. In a relatively new installation, filmed interviews explore the relationship between Guinness and local life. Its dark reflective surfaces in some areas reflect the product itself. Many of the original structural elements girders, floors, ceramic work have been integrated into the design. And much of the brewing equipment that was left when the plant ceased operation remains in place, either as whimsical architectural details or as exhibits in their own right. The main exhibition tells the story of brewery founder Arthur Guinness, and uses a series of dramatic set pieces incorporating 3-D exhibits, multimedia, film, and large-scale graphics to show how Guinness is made and distributed around the world. One gallery which also serves as the companys advertising archive is an entertaining walk through more than 100 years of the brands advertising campaigns. There is also a striking Ingredients Waterfall that keeps 30 tons of water on the move, and a replica of a cooperage (barrel storage), combining three-dimensional displays, rare film footage and interactive installations showing the brand throughout its history.