BUREAU HINDERMANN

At the temporary exhibition "The weather. Sunshine, lightning and cloudbursts" showing at the Forum of Swiss History, Bureau Hindermann takes a light-hearted look at how the weather works and how it dominates our day.

The exhibition designed by Bureau Hindermann starts precisely where weather happens: outside in front of the museum. Red deck chairs first invite visitors to sit down, stare at the sky and observe the current weather. En- tering the building, visitors then arrive at a coat rack with bright yellow raincoats. They are a playful reminder that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. From here, yellow rubber boots guide the visitor through the entire exhibition. The graphic design was a collaboration with Pikka Kommunikationsdesign and David Clavadetscher.

The first gallery deals with weather observation. Visitors can sit on an oversized classic red bench and watch meteorological phenomena on a large screen. Little weather gods can turn a crank handle to move weather phenomena across a landscape depicted on the light box. Large-scale interactive models explain typical weather conditions such as the west wind.

The subject of the second gallery is weather forecasting. The designers exemplify modern meteorology with
a control centre in the second gallery. Satellite and radar images dominate, in contrast to historic measuring instruments. After the digital weather kitchen, visitors finally pass through a poetic installation, which is both a cloud and a clothes line, to the analogue laundry, which also offers space for workshops.

Using strongly visual elements, Bureau Hindermann manages to portray the complexities of weather in such a way that the exhibition is capable of impressing both meteorological experts as well as the general public.