Is the building environmentally friendly?
Yes. High quality museum buildings, such as the Riverside Museum, are inherently energy efficient. The requirement to provide a stable environment to help conserve the collections also reduces the power consumption to heat and light the building. Riverside Museum has a deep wall and roof makeup and triple thickness glass that help to stabilise the environment within the building and conserve heat. The glazing is heavy filtered to contain solar- gain, particularly on the south facing façade. This is so that the building’s heating and cooling systems do not have to work harder to maintain a stable environment. The filtering has been applied in such a way that the views to the outside are maintained. Similarly, high light levels damage some materials such as textiles, wood and paper. Light levels will be set low enough to reduce damage but high enough to make it easy for visitors to get around. The cold cathode lighting chosen as the main lighting for the building is energy efficient and
