Museums
Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Step into a museum experience where maritime artefacts, personal stories, and immersive media bring Dutch seafaring history to life.
The experience
Visitors explored how the sea shaped Dutch history and culture through precious collection objects, personal stories and thirteen interactive exhibitions. Cinematic galleries, digital media and immersive experiences offered different ways to engage with the maritime past.
Stats
Client: National Maritime Museum
Design: Multiple agencies
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Type: Permanent museum renewal
Year: 2011
Object galleries: approx. 1,200 m²
Our job
Hypsos led the team as main contractor for the museum’s new exhibitions. Together with Bruns, Hypsos produced and installed the object and theme galleries, delivered thirteen interactive exhibits and helped realise The Maritime Experience.
Awards
Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2012 — Event Design, awarded for the object galleries designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum: stories set afloat
Following a four-year renovation, Het Scheepvaartmuseum reopened with a new approach to presenting Dutch maritime history. The ambition was to serve different audiences through collection galleries, thematic exhibitions and immersive experiences.
Each environment developed its own character. Ship models appear to sail through a continuous blue horizon, enclosed in transparent showcases that preserve clear sightlines. Figureheads and ornaments emerge from dark, theatrical galleries under precise lighting. Reflections multiply the objects, suggesting the density and mystery of a ship’s hold. Elsewhere, large-scale projection, sound and interactive media place visitors inside maritime stories.
Bright galleries present ship models against panoramic seascapes, while darker spaces use mirrors, precise lighting and reflective glass to give figureheads and ornaments a dramatic presence.
The museum combined traditional collection presentation with interactive and multimedia storytelling. Thirteen interactive exhibitions offered multiple entry points for adults, families and younger visitors. Digital media were integrated into the spatial presentation rather than treated as separate screens.
Project credits
Client: Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Main contractor: Hypsos
Object galleries: ATELIER BRÜCKNER
Theme exhibitions: Event Communications and Haley Sharpe Design
The Maritime Experience: Hypsos, Tinker and MET Studio
Project partners
Production and installation: Hypsos and Bruns NL
Content experience: Tinker
3D design: MET Studio
AV production: Tungsten
Graphics: jangled nerves
Media: Kiss the Frog
Lighting: Lichtontwerpers
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