Museum of Cultural History

The museum and collection

The Museum of Cultural History is Norway’s largest museum of archaeology and cultural heritage from Eastern and Southern Norway. The most recent addition is the Viking Age exhibition, designed by Snøhetta. Visitors can learn about Viking war culture and their journeys, and how society changed during this era. The Viking Age exhibition opened in April 2019 and will last five years.

The exhibition contains some of the most exquisite Viking Age artefacts, among which the best preserved Viking helmet in the world, skulls, jewellery, coins and weapons. The jewellery and coins are made from copper, silver and gold, while the weapons are made from bronze and silver. These include swords, spears, axes, shields and hammers.

The assignment

We delivered 19 freestanding custom showcases that allow visitors to admire the detail of each artefact from all angles. The showcases are built into a new raised floor to protect the existing floor.

The base of each showcase houses a large Artsorb compartment that can hold 10kg silica gel cassettes. We constructed several internal plinths in forex and small sheet metal plinths on legs. These plinths can easily be removed and exchanged between cases which improves flexibility in future set-ups.

The showcases had to present the artefacts elegantly. One of the design features in this project is the double sided LED plate in the top of the showcase. One face illuminates the objects while the other face illuminates upwards. Another defining feature is the slim profile which we have developed. Looking light and aesthetic, it gives the showcases great strength and security.