Women of Valour: Funerary Portrait

Role: Exhibition Designer & Project Manager

Scope: Heavy-artifact structural engineering, high-load mounting design, and rapid-timeline project execution.

This exhibition centers on a rare, ancient funerary portrait commemorating a prominent matron of Palmyra. Merging distinct local and Greco-Roman artistic traditions, the artifact portrays the subject adorned in protective jewelry, touching her veil, and holding traditional spinning tools—symbolic elements rich with cultural and historical resonance.

As the exhibition designer, the goal was to create a respectful, dignified spatial presentation that honored the artifact's profound cultural weight while safely integrating it into the gallery space.

Engineering Constraints & Rapid Execution

Working under a strict one-month deadline, this project presented intense structural and logistical hurdles driven by the physical properties of the artifact itself:

• High-Load Structural Design: The primary engineering challenge involved mounting a massive, 100 kg stone tablet securely at an elevation of at least 150 cm above the ground.

• Force & Stability Management: Because of the extreme weight combined with the elevated height, we engineered a custom, heavy-duty support structure specifically calculated to counteract and minimize forward momentum. The design guaranteed absolute structural stability, structural safety, and seamless load distribution under tight time constraints.