HISTORIC HOUSE – MUSEUM

Dodecanese - Permanent Exhibition

A permanent exhibition housed in the historic residence of a prominent entrepreneur from the Dodecanese, conceived as a “museum of the self”. Through the life stories of its former inhabitants, the exhibition reveals key aspects of the social, economic, and cultural history of Kalymnos from the late 19th to the early 20th century.

Role & Scope
The practice was responsible for the museological and exhibition design of the project, as well as for the development of the overall masterplan.

Context & Challenge
The project is being developed for the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese, with the aim of updating the visitor experience and integrating new exhibits and interpretive content emerging from ongoing archaeological and conservation research.

The exhibition experience is intentionally analogue and strongly experiential. It is based on soundscapes featuring dramatized first-person narratives by historical and fictional inhabitants of the house, activating memory and assembling fragments of lived history.

A key challenge was the long-term sustainability of the museum. Located on a remote island with limited human and material resources, the design needed to support stable operation and maintenance without imposing increased management demands on the institution.

Museological Approach
The central museological concept is grounded in the exemplary presentation of the sponge-trading family who lived in the house, along with the social and professional networks that surrounded them.

The project aims at the creative and critical preservation of everyday life in Kalymnos at the turn of the 20th century. The narrative extends beyond individual biographies to include social relations, economic activities, and the broader historical context of the period.

Spatial Design
The interventions follow a strategy of “subtractive creativity”, preserving the character and spirit of the house, its garden, and ancillary spaces. Visitors are gradually immersed in the atmosphere of domestic life, while simultaneously encountering broader social, historical, cultural, and economic readings.

The exhibition design is structured around three distinct spatial conditions:

• rooms conceived as closed exhibition units, functioning as “self-contained micro-museums”
• rooms with partial reconstruction of their original state, where furnishings survive in fragments
• rooms retaining only their structural and morphological features, hosting thematic sections that frame the interpretive dimension of the exhibition

Through this spatial articulation, visitors are able to situate the life of the house within the wider temporal, social, economic, and political framework that shaped it.

Outcome & Visitor Experience
The resulting museum experience forms a coherent and distinctive example of a historic house museum. The three experiential conditions are subtly interwoven, creating a unified and richly layered visitor journey.

The exhibition addresses diverse visitor profiles, responding to emotional, cognitive, and social needs, while remaining deliberately analogue. In this way, it avoids requirements for constant technological updating or complex management that would exceed the institution’s actual capacities.