The WING Case – designed by Norman Foster with Goppion
11 Aug 2023
Introducing The WING display case: a museum-grade lectern case designed by Norman Foster in partnership with Goppion.
A shared sensibility and an instinct for what makes outstanding design quickly led the two founders of Goppion Technology and Foster + Partners to build a synergy that has been reiterated over the years (extended most recently to include the Norman Foster Foundation): at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (2007), at the Cartier in Motion exhibition at the Design Museum, in London, (2017), and now at the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi (expected 2025). Foster + Partners and Goppion continue to collaborate throughout the world to create eye-opening projects, their roles dovetailing perfectly to conserve and enhance objects of the cultural heritage through an astute combination of architecture, technology and design.
Goppion brought to bear all its experience and technological know-how to produce the display cases for the Norman Foster retrospective (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2023), helping the architect decide which of the many options best represented what makes his designs so distinctive. The result is a lectern case designed by Norman Foster with Goppion’s engineering design assist that holds the architect’s original notebooks with his sketches. This collaboration laid the groundwork for a new line of horizontal display cases, designed specifically to protect and display books, documents, prints, photographs, slides and archival materials.
The interior of the Wing display cases can be customized to ensure optimal conservation and ideal viewing conditions for the objects displayed. They are equipped with an internal lighting system that may comprise two micro LED strip lights situated under the transverse sections of backpainted glass, or a LED panel illuminated base. Both systems are controlled by a dimmer switch. In addition, these display units can be installed individually, arranged in rows, as island displays, paired, or wall-mounted. Their high versatility allows for a wide range of possible unit combinations, enabling dynamic exhibition spaces that can be easily modified over time. This means the same display units can be used for multiple temporary exhibitions, making them highly durable and endlessly reusable products. Additionally, they are made entirely of recyclable materials and boast exceptional design.
The collaboration between Goppion's expertise in display cases and Norman Foster's design vision has resulted in the new WING case, offering a practical solution for the conservation and presentation of cultural artifacts.
Norman Foster and Sandro Goppion in Goppion's workshop for a prototype review of the WING case.
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