ArtSafe
Keep the Paintings Safe.
Paintings hold immense importance in various aspects of human life. They are a form of artistic expression and creativity, allowing artists to communicate their ideas and emotions through color, form, and composition. Paintings can also serve as a historical record, depicting important events and people, and preserving cultural heritage. Paintings have the power to beautify and enrich public spaces, adding cultural and aesthetic value to the environment. Furthermore, paintings can also hold financial value, making them a valuable investment.
Each year a number of paintings are destroyed partially or completely due to mold and need to be restored regularly. Most of the damage due to mold occurs in the storage or the transport of the painting as the exhibitions are held in a controlled environment. So In our Product Development studio, we decided to design a system to keep the paintings safe during storage and transportation
16 Weeks
Group Project
Politecnico di Milano
DESIGN PROCESS.
Brief
In the group Project in the final semester of my Master's degree. The Brief of the studio was to choose a niche and design a product or system related to the Sanitation of air or surface and then use any primary technology like filters, UV or chemicals to design the system.
After some initial research, we decided to choose the paintings which get destroyed due to microorganisms and came up with a more defined brief statement " Design a protective case to stock and ship safely medium-value paintings, preventing microbiological damages.".
Microorganisms
Aspergillus
(flavus, niger, fumigatus)
Penicllium
crysogenum
Others
Current Situation
Currently, Most of the Paintings are shipped using wooden crates. They are wrapped in dry paper, a bubble wrap and then put into crates. They are either stored in these crates or shipped to other places or exhibitions. Usually, the paintings are kept in controlled environments inside the art galleries or museums but during transit, the temperature and humidity levels change drastically which supports the growth of organic content on the surface of paintings.
Market Definition
The Paintings market covers a very wide range, the price can be from a few hundred to millions of dollars. The High-end paintings of famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Salvatore Dali are kept and transported with great care as they have more importance. But the Mid-range paintings which are valued from a few hundred to a couple hundred thousand dollars are the most affected due to irregular care during storage or transport. So we decided to focus on that segment of paintings. The main stakeholders of mid-range paintings are Art galleries, Restorers and Shipping Companies.
Kate Salenfriend, Lovely 4326, 2021
Edouard Léon Cortès, Parisian Street Scene, 1919-1969
Development Versions
![IMG_1378[1559].PNG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1d8b43_ab9baa51e9a14cdf9321ddc4598d11ba~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_981,h_685,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/IMG_1378%5B1559%5D_PNG.png)
Final Design.
Artsafe is a Sanitizing and Safety box for paintings. It is an airtight and insulated box that preserves the humidity and temperature conditions for the painting. The windows in the box are used to sanitize the painting from the front and back using UVC light. The Painting is fixed inside the box before shipping and then sanitized thoroughly. The box maintains the ideal germ-free condition inside during the time of shipping and storage.
General Process
UV sanitation on different areas of painting.
Components and Features
The Artsafe box is a sandwich design of Thermoformed ABS, UV-stabilized Polyurethane and Polished Aluminium respectively. The ABS gives the required strength and rigidity to the box during transportation. The UV-stabilized PU gives elastic strength to the box and prevents the drastic changes in the outer and inner temperatures. Finally, the inner polished aluminium layer helps in reflecting the UV light inside the box to all areas of the painting.
A Slider and Clamping system to adapt to multiple sizes of paintings and keep them fixed during the transit.
Handles
Breech-Lock Mount
Safety
