ESG achieves pole position at motorsport museum

The use of ESG Switchable™ glass in the creation of a unique motorsport museum has highlighted its stunning properties in partitioning and displaying precious exhibits in either a retail or museum setting. The brainchild of leading YouTuber Tim Burton, known to his millions of subscribers as Shmee150, the motorsport ‘Shmuseum’, dedicated to all things motorsport, has been brought to life in a former farm milking parlour. It now houses vehicles and motorsport memorabilia collected by Shmee on his world travels.

Passionate about the sport, Shmee was determined to display his collection to the best advantage, designing a race track floor with zones and bays in which to display vehicles and other exhibits. Central to the Shmuseum is his grandstand, a two-story edifice within the museum, which provides a viewing gallery and offices above and a lounge meeting room and individual display bays below.

ESG Switchable™ glass holds the key to the grandstand’s versatile use of space. This LCD privacy glass allows the collection to be completely concealed from visitors’ view or proudly displayed, at the touch of a button.

Switchable glass is created by laminating two panes of glass together, using a highly technical LCD interlayer. When an electrical current is passed through the interlayer, it allows light to pass through, creating an optically clear glass pane. If the current is switched off, the glass becomes instantly opaque, creating an innovative room divider, or entire walls of an internal room.

In the Shmooseum setting, there are several separate controls to allow Shmee to entertain sponsors or VIP visitors in his ground floor room, which itself contains hints to the main collection below. At the touch of a button, he can reveal, on one side, the ‘halo bay’ where a Formula One racing car – any of several which he has carefully collected and curated – will be on display. A second button reveals the second side workshop and maintenance bay where vehicles can be lovingly restored and maintained, while the third button controls the main wall, which can be switched on to provide an instant reveal of the main collection, an unrivalled homage to F1 and other motorsport genres.

ESG Switchable allows truly versatile use of display areas for a variety of museums, but also for high end retail applications. By adding further interlayers, privacy glass can also provide high security and intruder resistant characteristics, as well as sound attenuation. In domestic dwellings, LCD switchable privacy glass is increasingly used to zone more open plan living areas and create en-suites and study areas within internal spaces.