Museum and Display Casework Detailing Tolerances closer to furniture than to millwork.

Materials chosen for what they emit as well as what they look like.

Specifications for display casework frequently restrict materials, adhesives and finishes used inside a case. Those restrictions are written into the document, and they change substrate and edge selection.

Glass as a structural and visual element.

Thickness, edge treatment, support and joint lines all matter, and a case is usually judged on how little of its construction is visible.

Integrated lighting and access.

Lighting lives inside the assembly, generates heat, and needs servicing without dismantling the case or disturbing what is inside it.

Tolerances tighter than architectural millwork.

Reveal consistency and joint lines are scrutinised at close range, in good light, by people whose job includes noticing.

Material restrictions read late.

Specified restrictions on materials inside a case discovered after the substrate was selected.

Glass detailed as a panel rather than a component.

Support, edge condition and fixing decided at fabrication rather than at drawing.

Lighting access designed out.

A case that has to be partially dismantled to change a lamp, in a gallery where opening a case is a controlled event.

Interface tolerance between glass, metal and timber.

The same failure as every mixed-material sector, judged far more harshly here.

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