Museu Fundação Oriente
Project Vision
Lisbon’s new Orient Museum opened in 2008 in a former warehouse. P-06 Atelier developed the museum’s corporate identity, communication display system, and wayfinding system and supports, in addition to a chromatic study of the building, the opening campaign (press, TV, and outdoors), and all communication products including books, tickets, and merchandising.
Color is an important part of the building and museum identity as well as an organizing tool for the exhibition spaces. On the exterior of the building, a huge gold ingot announces the museum and its collection of Asian art and references the gods in Eastern culture. In the museum entrance, bold red (a color symbolizing the people) saturates the ceiling and guides visitors toward the collections.
In the spaces where permanent exhibitions are housed, P-06 masked huge pillars and low ceilings with black, achieving a theatrical look that offsets the art and casts the objects as actors on a stage. P-06 employed a color-coding system to organize exhibition spaces by country (gold for China, red for Macau, silver for Japan, etc.). Exhibit graphics are rendered on glass. The wayfinding system uses oversized graphics due to the building’s corridor configuration. The project budget was 3 million euros.
Project Details
Bold use of color in surprising locations both complements the exhibits and invites the viewer into the blackness of the exhibition rooms.
Elegant use of color, design, and application resulted in an impactful exhibition. It’s engaging and visually compelling.
Design Team
Nuno Gusmão (creative director); Estela Pinto, Pedro Anjos (project managers); Joana Proserpio, Vera Sachetti, Giuseppe Greco, Miguel Cochofel, Miguel Matos, Clara Jana, Pedro Schreck (designers)
Design Firm
P-06 Atelier
Project Budget
$3,355,000
Fabricators
Construções Sampaio (master contractor), Demetro a Metro (vinyl applications), Construção de Ideias (signage)