Museum; Global·Local
Museum from Village, Museum to the World_Silvio Carta
The Evolution of Global Museums_Anna Roos
– San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion_Snøhetta
– New Tate Modern_Herzog & de Meuron
– The Broad Museum_Diller Scofidio + Renfro
– Kunstmuseum Basel_Christ & Gantenbein
– National Museum of African American History and Culture_Freelon Adjaye Bond / SmithGroup
– International Museum of the Baroque_Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
– MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology_AL_A
Local Museums; From Village to the World_Aldo Vanini
– Archeopark Pavlov_Architektonicka Kancelar Radko Kvet
– Pachacamac Museum_Llosa Cortegana Arquitectos
– Miyahata Jomon Museum_Furuichi and Associates
– Torsby Finnskogscentrum_Bornstein Lyckefors Architects
– National Museum in Szczecin_KWK Promes
– Wasit Natural Reserve Visitor Center_X – Architects
Museum; Global·Local
Museum from Village, Museum to the World_Silvio Carta
Like other urban types of buildings, museums are unique presences in cities. With their image, activities and contents, they characterise the urban contexts in which they sit. The Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao are clear examples of the active role that museums play, where these buildings have become icons in which not only residents, but also the international tourist population recognise itself. As cultural institutions, museums play a major role in the city’s public life, preserving the history of the urban, social and cultural contexts, whilst promoting their future. Whether buildings dedicated to local activities in a remote village, or global institutions that propel cultural life in the city, all museums around the world share a similar mission: to protect contextual histories, and disseminate them through people, reaching residents as well as international visitors.
In recent years C3 explored a significant number of museums and their contexts, examining different aspects including the relationship amongst art and senses in exhibition spaces (C3 no. 322), the influence of the physical characteristic of the building on visitors (no. 346), the individual visitor’s experience through sensing in space (no. 352), exhibitions as experiential journey (no. 364), and the strategic facet of art display (no. 375).
This issue focuses on two main types of museums: local-centered, that include those that concentrate on the history and culture of a specific place, city or region, and the global-centered: those whose activities aim at a large public reach, and become national and international cultural landmarks.
The first chapter explores the evolution of global museums. Anna Roos examines “how global museums have diversified their collections and their project briefs in order to enhance the allure of museums, and how this diversification has affected museum architecture”. Roos describes how global museums are today “a concrete monument to the importance of knowledge and fact, conscientiously collected and strikingly presented in spaces that enhance understanding”. In order to constantly be at the forefront of exhibition trends, these large cultural centers “have had to expand their scope and demography to reach an ever-wider audience”.
In the second chapter Aldo Vanini describes Local Museums as “complex systems, more widely and democratically represented by the territories in their entirety and by the cultural identities and traditions”. Although still based on the notion of conventional museums, local museums “provide a model for the transformation of humble manifestations of work and folklore into powerful tools that can strengthen the identity of a community.” Vanini examines the paradigm behind local museums, highlighting a common “need of identity and self-recognition of the communities”, and dynamic engagement with visitors “in the development of personal and communal awareness, rather than promoting a passive contemplation of the past”.
Altogether the two chapters present an updated picture of the evolution of exhibition spaces and museums around the world, ranging from the intimate and community-oriented scale of the local, to the open, connected and international breadth of the global.
Museum; Global·Local
Museum from Village, Museum to the World_Silvio Carta
Like other urban types of buildings, museums are unique presences in cities. With their image, activities and contents, they characterise the urban contexts in which they sit. The Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao are clear examples of the active role that museums play, where these buildings have become icons in which not only residents, but also the international tourist population recognise itself. As cultural institutions, museums play a major role in the city’s public life, preserving the history of the urban, social and cultural contexts, whilst promoting their future. Whether buildings dedicated to local activities in a remote village, or global institutions that propel cultural life in the city, all museums around the world share a similar mission: to protect contextual histories, and disseminate them through people, reaching residents as well as international visitors.
In recent years C3 explored a significant number of museums and their contexts, examining different aspects including the relationship amongst art and senses in exhibition spaces (C3 no. 322), the influence of the physical characteristic of the building on visitors (no. 346), the individual visitor’s experience through sensing in space (no. 352), exhibitions as experiential journey (no. 364), and the strategic facet of art display (no. 375).
This issue focuses on two main types of museums: local-centered, that include those that concentrate on the history and culture of a specific place, city or region, and the global-centered: those whose activities aim at a large public reach, and become national and international cultural landmarks.
The first chapter explores the evolution of global museums. Anna Roos examines “how global museums have diversified their collections and their project briefs in order to enhance the allure of museums, and how this diversification has affected museum architecture”. Roos describes how global museums are today “a concrete monument to the importance of knowledge and fact, conscientiously collected and strikingly presented in spaces that enhance understanding”. In order to constantly be at the forefront of exhibition trends, these large cultural centers “have had to expand their scope and demography to reach an ever-wider audience”.
In the second chapter Aldo Vanini describes Local Museums as “complex systems, more widely and democratically represented by the territories in their entirety and by the cultural identities and traditions”. Although still based on the notion of conventional museums, local museums “provide a model for the transformation of humble manifestations of work and folklore into powerful tools that can strengthen the identity of a community.” Vanini examines the paradigm behind local museums, highlighting a common “need of identity and self-recognition of the communities”, and dynamic engagement with visitors “in the development of personal and communal awareness, rather than promoting a passive contemplation of the past”.
Altogether the two chapters present an updated picture of the evolution of exhibition spaces and museums around the world, ranging from the intimate and community-oriented scale of the local, to the open, connected and international breadth of the global.
