Permanent exhibition of the German Mining Museum

Client: DMT Gesellschaft für Lehre und Bildung mbH

Year: 2019

Awards: German Design Award, ADC, reddot design award

Museums and exhibitions

The German Mining Museum is one of the largest and most traditional museums in Germany. In the beginning, it served as a training center for young miners; today, as the Leibniz Research Museum for Georesources, its mission is to collect, preserve, research, exhibit and communicate the material heritage of mining. The Mining Museum is also the symbol of an entire region. More than just a museum that shows history, it is part of the history of German coal mining, which came to an end with the closure of the last colliery in 2018. In order to do justice to its mission as a place of remembrance, we worked with res-d Architekten to undertake the general refurbishment and redesign of the new permanent exhibition.

Rundgang Bergbau

Four independent themed tours were developed for the redesign: "Coal", "Mining", "Mineral Resources" and "Art and Culture". In terms of design, the challenge was to create independent tours without them falling apart. Each tour is therefore individual in terms of dramaturgy and scenography, all framed by the building blocks of an overarching graphic design.

Rundgang Steinkohle

A specially developed, clear color coding of the individual tours is supplemented by different hatching types, based on geological mapping. A uniform typography and a common style for infographics and co. form the framework for the tours.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to participate in many different ways. The spectrum ranges from simple elements such as peepers, which reveal surprising perspectives, to expansive games in which you become an explorer yourself. For the target group under the age of 8, a children's trail offers playful content across all tours. It is designed without text so that there are no barriers for young visitors. The stations include small comics, a digital memory game and a crawl tunnel.

Rundgang Bodeschätze

Rundgang Bodeschätze

Once the redesign is complete, the museum will contain around 120 media stations, ranging from large projections with several beamers, audio stations and white model projections to countless information terminals containing films or in-depth information.

Rundgang Kunst

In addition to digital elements, the German Mining Museum is also in possession of a unique treasure. An incredible number of models provide an insight into every conceivable aspect of mining. From a purely financial point of view, models of this size and quality are difficult to realize today - which is why these existing treasures have been integrated into the new tours. With around 8000 m2 of exhibition space, the Mining Museum is one of our largest projects.

Pictures: www.simin-kianmehr-fotografie.de