Museum of Coastal Defence

The museum & the collection

For this exceptional project we provided our showcases to 3 different museums: the Hong Kong Museum of History & Museum of Coastal Defence, both managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, which is a non-profit organization.

Housed in a large state-of-the-art building in the south of Kowloon, the Hong Kong Museum of History presents a significant collection of over 140.000 various objects and materials related to Hong Kong and South China history. Invaluable items ranging from postal stamps and books to coins and arrowheads, are divided into the museum’s key areas of interest: natural history, local history and ethnography.

Across Victoria Harbour, overlooking Lyemun Pass from the coast of Hong Kong Island, a hundred-year-old former fort has been given a second life as the Museum of Coastal Defence, the city’s only military museum. It tells the story of Hong Kong’s eventful history of coastal defence in a majorly revitalized permanent exhibition.

The maritime history of Hong Kong and South China is illustrated by a wide array of beautiful ceramics, nautical instruments, naval artefacts, ship models, and more, assembled by the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Two thousand years of human history starting from the Han Dynasty to modern times can be learned and appreciated in this collection.

The assignment & the challenges

In our scope were included 15 freestanding showcases and 6 table cases for the Museum of History, 18 wall cases and 6 freestanding cases for the Museum of Coastal Defence and 2 modular cases for the Maritime Museum.

Our showcases had to meet specific requirements: the client requested that certain large showcases with heavy sliding doors allow an opening of 80%. Additionally, the airtightness level had to hit between 0,05 and 0,07 AER and the LED lighting needed a CRI of 98.

The unique location of the building was quite challenging: the museum is located on a hill and it has a small winding pathway that doesn’t fit any big trucks to go up. Hence, we reloaded our products on many smaller trucks. Due to the special architecture of the building, the various small arches and casemates made the whole project even more challenging. Large glass panels had to be brought through narrow entrances. Moreover, the cases needed to fit perfectly in terms of the arches.

The solutions & the result

We used our Heavy Duty Pull & Slide system which allowed us to open the sliding doors of our showcases up to 80%.

To solve the covid-related challenges, we could thankfully count on a pricelessly strong support from our client and our colleagues in Europe and Asia. We also established good connections with the local companies who helped us unload our goods and take meticulous site measurements.

We overcame the location obstacles through clear communication and a hands-on mentality of project management.

To sum things up, the extraordinary technical, collaborative and communicative skills of our team made it possible to expertly, smoothly and successfully complete this project.

© Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence