Levolux keeps exhibits cool in Liverpool

The £72 million Museum of Liverpool, situated on the Mann Island site, alongside the historic Albert Dock, boasts some interesting design features, such as its distinctive limestone cladding and an installation of automated Roller Blinds by Levolux.

The world's first national museum devoted to the history of a regional city, the Museum of Liverpool is a landmark UK development, sitting within a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Originally designed by Danish architect, 3XN and due to open in summer 2011, the building’s ultra-modern design features inclined and elevated platforms that gradually form a sculptural iconic structure. 

A focal point of the building, with its prominent, inclined glazed elevation is the Museum’s Wondrous Place City gallery, which overlooks the river Mersey to the south. The floor to ceiling glazing, measures approximately 28 metres in width and 8 metres in height. 

To help overcome the potential risk of excessive glare and solar heat gain within the Wondrous Place gallery, Levolux was approached to develop a custom internal Solar Shading solution, incorporating it’s radio-controlled, motorised Roller Blinds.

In total, Levolux installed 15 fabric Roller Blinds, each measuring 1500mm wide, with a drop of almost 9 metres. The highly technical Blinds feature an efficient charcoal fabric, with an openness factor of 10%, which is skilfully inclined vertically and horizontally. The complete system effectively reduces glare levels and limits the impact of solar heat gain within the building, particularly during the summer months.

The custom design incorporates innovative ‘zipped’ side channels, which grip the edges of the fabric, allowing it to be raised and lowered to screen the glazed panels. This improves the performance of the blinds and enables staff to adjust daylight levels in the gallery.

The motorised Roller Blinds are linked together in a group using Levolux’s standalone programmable control system. This allows all of the Blinds to be operated together, automatically. Blinds can be raised or lowered in response to changing daylight levels, detected by an external light sensor, in accordance with one of 6 automatic commands or as required manually, by someone entering a valid PIN on an integral wireless keypad. 

Like all Solar Shading systems from Levolux, the Roller Blinds used on this project are backed by the company’s design, manufacture and installation package.

The Museum of Liverpool is a stunning new addition to the city’s famous waterfront and its vibrant culture, and thanks to the custom Solar Shading solution from Levolux, a new light will shine on Liverpool’s extraordinary history.

For more information, visit www.levolux.com.