Reshaping Museum Space

About this book

At no other point in their modern history have museums undergone such radical reshaping as in recent years. Challenges to create inclusive and accessible spaces open to appropriation and responsive to contemporary agendas have resulted in new architectural forms for museums, inside and out. "Reshaping Museum Space" pulls together the views of an international group of museum professionals, architects, designers and academics highlighting the complexity, significance and malleability of museum space and provides reflections upon recent developments in museum architecture and exhibition design. The problems of navigating the often contradictory agendas and aspirations of the broad range of professionals and stakeholders involved in any new project are discussed in various chapters that concentrate on the process of architectural and spatial reshaping. Contributors review recent new build, expansion and exhibition projects questioning the types of museum space required at the beginning of the 21st century and highlighting a range of possibilities for creative museum design.

Contents

Section 1 On the nature of museum space Chapter 1 Rethinking museum architecture: towards a site-specific history of production and use Suzanne MacLeod Chapter 2 Black box science in black box science centres Richard Toon Chapter 3 Space and the machine: adaptive museums, pervasive technology and the new gallery environment Ross Parry and Andrew Sawyer Chapter 4 Creative space David Fleming Section 2 Architectural reshaping Chapter 5 From cultural institution to cultural consumer experience: Manchester Art Gallery expansion project Moira Stevenson Chapter 6 Spatial culture, way-finding and the educational message: the impact of layout on the spatial, social and educational experiences of visitors to museums and galleries Sophia Psarra Chapter 7 The Grande Galerie de l'Evolution: an alternative cognitive experience Fabienne Galangau-Querat Chapter 8 Producing a public for art: gallery space in the 21st century Helen Rees Leahy Chapter 9 Towards a new museum architecture: narrative and representation Lee H. Skolnick Section 3 Inside spaces Chapter 10 Building on Victorian ideas Lawrence Fitzgerald Chapter 11 Representing Enlightenment space Beth Lord Chapter 12 The studio in the gallery? Jon Wood Chapter 13 When world's collide: the contemporary museum as art gallery Christopher R. Marshall Chapter 14 Constructing and communicating equality: the social agency of museum space Richard Sandell Section 4 Creative Space Chapter 15 Threshold fear Elaine Heumann Gurian Chapter 16 From cathedrals of culture to anchor attractor Peter Higgins Chapter 17 The vital museum Stephen Greenberg

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