Between art and comfort: Renovation and sustainability in museums

Many museums are at a tipping point. Buildings and their systems were often designed years or even decades ago. Requirements regarding energy consumption, CO₂ reduction, accessibility and visitor experience have shifted dramatically since then. As a result, renovation is rarely just about technical replacement. It offers an opportunity to redefine what performance the building must deliver, how the collection is protected and how operations can become more sustainable.

Three requirements that constantly influence one another

Museums are among the most complex building types to make sustainable.

This is due to 3 simultaneous demands placed upon them.

• Preservation of the collection: sufficient stability in temperature, relative humidity and light intensity to prevent material deterioration and protect the lifespan of the works.
• Visitor comfort: air exchange, thermal comfort and lighting that enhance the museum experience and encourage visitors to stay longer.
• Building physics: the limitations imposed by the building itself on what is technically possible, particularly when it is a historic building. Modifications to the building must not cause damage.

These requirements directly influence one another. Collection preservation requires strict control of temperature and relative humidity, whilst visitors are particularly sensitive to thermal comfort. Dehumidification plays a key role here but is at the same time one of the most energy-intensive processes. This calls for a design process in which these performance requirements are considered and coordinated from the outset.

Sustainability within the building’s constraints

In museums, sustainability begins with the indoor climate. Recent international research shows that art collections can tolerate greater climate variation than has long-been assumed, provided that the variation remains predictable. This shifts the focus from maintaining a single fixed value to managing change, creating scope to reduce energy consumption without compromising the collection.

In the case of listed museums, a second reality comes into play. The building itself imposes limits on what is technically possible. For example: brick walls from earlier centuries are designed to breathe. They absorb moisture and release it back into the air. Modern insulation measures increase the risk of cracking, damp problems and damage to the façade. Assessing this requires in-depth knowledge of building physics.

This shifts the question from how much you can insulate to where insulation actually has an effect. In the case of heritage museums, it is not just about the building envelope, but about the interplay between insulation, services and use. Computational Parametric Design (CPD) makes this assessment concrete by calculating variables such as insulation, glazing and sun protection in conjunction with one another. This reveals where interventions contribute most to energy consumption and where investments can pay for themselves.

Every museum is different

In practice, these trade-offs differ for each museum. At the Anne Frank House, for example, the emphasis was on protecting one specific object. Anne Frank’s diary is kept in a display case with its own climate zone which is at a different temperature and humidity to the room in which the visitor stands. This allows the most vulnerable part of the collection to be specifically protected, without having to condition the entire building to the same standard.

At the Amsterdam Museum, the complexity lay in the building itself. The listed building consists of a series of sections from different periods, each with varying functions. As a result, climate control, insulation, accessibility and logistics constantly interact with one another. The physical space for installations is limited, whilst performance requirements remain high. This translates into choices that differ per building section and per room.

The hidden sustainability lever

In sustainability initiatives, insulation is an important first step, but significant gains can also be made with the building’s systems. In museums, energy consumption is largely determined by how these systems are used. The load on the indoor climate varies constantly due to visitor numbers, lighting and outdoor conditions. This offers scope to reduce energy consumption even further.

This can be reflected in the way 3 key building systems are controlled:

• Day and night modes — systems can be scaled back outside opening hours, provided conditions remain within safe limits
• Occupancy-based control — systems scale in line with visitor numbers and the internal heat load
• Defining lower limits — clearly establishing the level to which the climate can be reduced without risk to the collection

This ensures that the use of systems is tailored to the museum’s actual usage.

Designing future-proof museums

A museum in ten years’ time will not be the same building as it is today. Climate standards are evolving, visitor expectations are shifting, and new insights into collection conservation are changing the playing field.

At Deerns, we bring these principles together in an integrated design approach. With technical expertise in building services engineering, building physics and sustainability, we design buildings that continue to function — in use, under changing conditions and within the building’s constraints.