The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto was inaugurated in September as a permanent gallery exhibiting an exquisite collection of globally significant Islamic artefacts and was designed by Studio Adrien Gardère.
Founded by His Highness the Aga Khan, who said its aim was: “to offer unique insights and new perspectives into Islamic civilizations and the cultural threads that weave through history binding us all together,” the collection has more than 1,000 artefacts.
The museum’s director, Henry Kim, described the artefacts as some of the best pieces that have come together in a connoisseur’s collection and it is the designers’ ‘less is more’ theme that aimed to make the exhibits speak all the louder.
ClickNetherfield won the tender to supply the vitrines to the exacting standards defined by the highly regarded designer.
It was the attention to detail that made this project a very exciting challenge for the team who said, in keeping with the clean and understated gallery, that the brief was exceptionally demanding.
ClickNetherfield’s reputation for accepting technically difficult challenges and delivering excellence was put to the test by the apparently simple design that ultimately required it to modify its equipment and advance its manufacturing processes in order to surpass the standards of all its stakeholders.
“We were all determined that these cases were going to exceptional and something we could all be proud of,” said a spokesperson.
“The exacting tolerances on the glass required us to modify our Bottero glass bevelling machine, so much so that we can now continuously hold tolerances that are tighter than the manufacturer warrants.”
This dedication to detail led ClickNetherfield to buy a digital microscope to be able to measure the aris accurately.
The company’s manufacturing partners were hesitant to take on the challenge of machining the metal for the frames to the tight tolerances, so ClickNetherfield did it themselves to the required quality and achieved the tolerances across the full 4,200mm length.
For the project the company’s UV glass bonding ability was tested and passed with flying colours, protecting the PVB interlayer and highlighting the polish on the customised mitred glass edgework, yet another glowing achievement by its technical team.
“Throughout the project, we were driven by our passion and the relentless need to fulfil our customer’s vision, and if we did our job right no one will see our cases in the Aga Khan Museum, just the iconic artefacts and objects that our cases present beautifully, preserve perfectly and protect totally.”
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