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but without damage to, the existing floor.This was
done for a number of reasons: first, the floor was
unusable and putting a screed on it would have
changed its character; second, the new deck now
allows universal access to visitors and third, as
an unexpected consequence, it has improved the
acoustics throughout. In order to keep consistent
the theme of highlighting the old and the new, the
design team included glass floor panels allowing
visitors to see, by LED strip lighting, the original
floor beneath the wooden deck.
The walls and ceilings were wire brushed a
number of times to remove loose and exfoliating
plaster and paint, mainly because of rain during the
restoration. During this process, every effort was
made to keep the patina and the end result is good.
An additional variation to the scope of works was
the inclusion to prevent water penetration from the
grass ramparts above. Until this was installed, each
time it rained heavily water ingress would damage
some of the plaster and paint in the barrel vault roof.
“When it came to lighting,” says Campbell,
“João specified the details for all the lights and
made sure that the lighting levels were right”. Mu-
seum lighting is specific, but that level of lighting
was not required for this installation. The lighting
levels at Old Fort have been specified for comfort
and there are controls that allow the focus to switch
from artwork to ambience and to increase or de-
crease the levels, depending on the requirement.
Because it is a heritage site, everything that was
altered must be able to be reversed. To adhere to
this requirement, the team included in each room
a multi-purpose steel frame to deal with the exhibi-
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