A History of Beauty: Helena Rubinstein’s Miniature Rooms design
My kids, know we visit museums on a monthly basis. (If we travel this extends to 2-3 museums a day). When they were babies, it was easy, as we would stroll together, they were set in a baby carrier, at my eye height and observe art endlessly. The Helena Rubinstein’s miniature room was our usual stop, 15 years ago with my eldest daughter. As She grew, she would know the exact direction leading to the secret path to get to the small gallery and would never miss a stop there. They were places for us to invent stories, imaginary lives that froze to small spaces. The rooms tell stories through the tiny designs of spaces, objects, light fixtures, tapestries, tools, colors, materials and much more.
The design approach was to enhance this magical experience: by ‘peeking to small worlds’ and inventing their stories. An ‘Alice in wonderland’ playful visit. I wanted the rooms to return and to be seen as windows in facades, enabling the various audiences (adults and children) to observe them and play with their scale. Rather than the previous dark and dramatic room as they were shown15 years ago, we created a ‘timeless ‘place through a modern and minimalistic design.
My design had to follow 2 major guidelines: managing to fit all 17 rooms in a not very large gallery while planning the display to fit very strict and detailed restoration restrictions.
for the younger audiences, I asked to add a 18th room: a contemporary miniature room of the museum itself, an interactive addition for the children to place themselves in a miniature and be observed from the outside through a window. The room is a miniature of the foyer of the modernist architecture of the Museum, with its famous beautiful ramp. We scanned and printed know and iconic sculptures that are placed throughout the museum and that can be easily recognized by the visitors. The 18th room is a place to play with scale, with the understanding of being inside/ outside, and playing with points of view.
