Metaphor (designers)
Encyclopedia
Metaphor is a London-based, global design firm that was founded in 2000 by Stephen Greenberg and Rachel Morris. Metaphor specialises in the re-presentation of museums, palaces, forts, landscapes and country houses through masterplanning and design. They work all over the world.
Over the last 50 years as museology
has developed, so museum professionals have become more aware of the uses of design in making museum exhibits. Metaphor’s directors, who come out of architecture and novel-writing, have developed new ways of seeing museums, breaking down the differences between exhibit and non-exhibit spaces and emphasising atmosphere, storylines and theatre. Also part of these new movements in museology is the way that Metaphor take a holistic view of museums, looking at everything from the big vision to the map in the visitors’ hands.
Metaphor’s projects illustrate these new movements. The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum
in London, used the curved walls of the Round Reading Room
to hold projections, acting as a theatrical backdrop. The Holburne Museum in Bath, currently under re-construction, displays the central collection as if reflecting the mind of its eccentric 18th century collector. In Metaphor’s new galleries at the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford, the experience is enhanced by the creation of associative links and sight lines, by the way that objects are placed and windows created between galleries, so that the entire world feels wrapped into the experience.
Over the last 50 years as museology
Museology
Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...
has developed, so museum professionals have become more aware of the uses of design in making museum exhibits. Metaphor’s directors, who come out of architecture and novel-writing, have developed new ways of seeing museums, breaking down the differences between exhibit and non-exhibit spaces and emphasising atmosphere, storylines and theatre. Also part of these new movements in museology is the way that Metaphor take a holistic view of museums, looking at everything from the big vision to the map in the visitors’ hands.
Metaphor’s projects illustrate these new movements. The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
in London, used the curved walls of the Round Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside...
to hold projections, acting as a theatrical backdrop. The Holburne Museum in Bath, currently under re-construction, displays the central collection as if reflecting the mind of its eccentric 18th century collector. In Metaphor’s new galleries at the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
in Oxford, the experience is enhanced by the creation of associative links and sight lines, by the way that objects are placed and windows created between galleries, so that the entire world feels wrapped into the experience.