Kenneth E. Behring Hall of Mammals

Description:

For this assignment I visited the Hall of Mammals on a crowded Saturday over Labor Day weekend. The hoards of people trying to move through the rooms really emphasized how unintuitive the flow of the exhibit is. As I thought back to the times I’ve visited the Hall of Mammals at NMNH I realized that I had only been to the “Africa” section of the hall before, not knowing that there were other parts to the exhibit. This time around, I walked through the exhibit several times, each time following a different group of people as they wandered through the exhibit into the different continent areas (which, surprisingly, did not include Asia). Interestingly, each group took different paths through the exhibit via the three doorways in the “Africa” section, since the layout of the exhibit is more random than linear and allows users to essentially choose their own museum experience.

Each section in the exhibit was clearly marked with signage bearing the name of the continent that was being studied, which was quite helpful. The “Orientation” section was also clearly marked and obviously led to the “Africa” section, aided by hoofprints on the floor that act as a guide through the Sahara to the savanna. There were also animal footprints that led out of the savanna section down to the “Australia” section,” but an “Exit” sign over the steps was a bit confusing since it pointed me away from the “Australia” and “South America” sections and toward the gift shop. If I took those stairs to “Australia,” I ended up moving against the flow of traffic and it felt awkward to run into families and strollers. The path that made the most sense was through the back of “Africa” and into the theater area, but then I’d have to double back through either the “Australia” and “South America” sections or the “North America” section. I didn’t ever find a path that let me walk through the exhibit without any repetitions.

Until I discussed the exhibit later with my classmates, I did not take much notice that each of the sections were arranged by color—I just noticed that the rooms had earthy tones to match the mood of the exhibit, but to me, the color changes did not signal a change in subject. Cooler colors in the “South America” and “North America” sections and the warm colors of “Africa” and “Australia” echoed the climates that were being depicted. The earthy browns of the theater area tied the whole exhibit together. Personally, I was more drawn to the lighting in each of the rooms and used it as a signal of the subject changes. For example, “Africa” felt bright and sunny, presumably to mimic the feeling of a desert; “South America” was darker to fit the discussion of nocturnal animals; and “North America” was brighter in the section about the frozen north.

Ultimately, I felt like the exhibit’s success was thanks to the organization of each individual continent section. However, the overall flow of the exhibit felt awkward and crowded, without a clear path for visitors to take.

*Editor’s note: This review was written for a course in exhibition design.