描述

AR May 2023

Are museums in crisis? Their founding ideals are under intense scrutiny: the ‘universal’ histories they purport to tell often belie the colonial origins of their collections, while their commitment to amassing and preserving artefacts, artworks and specimens have resulted in overflowing depots. Meanwhile, large western museum are franchising their names to culture districts around the world and commissioning ‘starchitects’ to imbue their brands with the much-vaunted quality of iconicity. AR May 2023 pays a visit to the museum, asking what challenges face cultural institutions today – and ultimately, how they impact architecture.

Museums

Keynote: Follow the money, George Kafka
Building: National Portrait Gallery in London, UK by Jamie Fobert Architects with Purcell, Ellie Duffy
Building: Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Melbourne, Australia by Kerstin Thompson Architects, Rory Hyde
Outrage: A moratorium on starchitect retrospectives, Eleanor Beaumont
Reputations: Carlo Scarpa, Orietta Lanzarini
Building: Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Canada by Kuehn Malvezzi with Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, Lev Bratishenko
Typology: Museum district, Edwin Heathcote
Essay: Monument to Egyptology, Mohamed Elshahed
Interview: Françoise Vergès, Manon Mollard
Books: Are museums obsolete? Dan Hicks
Exhibition: Healing the museum, Bushra Mohamed
Building: Denis Goldberg House of Hope in Hout Bay, South Africa by Noero Architects, Jehan Latief
Essay: Out of storage, Kristina Rapacki
Case study: Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium by KAAN Architecten
Case study: Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands by MVRDV
In practice: Space Popular, Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg