Buildings and Architecture: Typologies That Defy Definition

Art museums have become pervasive in contemporary cities; they are no longer limited to cosmopolitan centers alone but are spread across small- to medium-sized cities around the world. Just as the reasons for creating museums have evolved and spread, so the architectural form of museums have been just as flexible: located in former royal palaces or former industrial structures or standing as contemporary architectural icons. This chapter gives an overview of the issue by presenting three categories of the architecture of art museums, discussing within each the wide range of possibilities that yet manage to fit within these constraints. These three categories consist of existing structures converted into museums, newly created structures designed to be museums, and hybrid structures that contain elements of both. These categories go beyond any kind of linear chronological development, with examples spanning centuries, continents, and scales. This contribution is by no means the first attempt to develop a framework on the architecture of museums, but it ultimately argues that such discussions must go beyond a purely architectural lens to embrace a multidisciplinary approach that considers the history of the structures, the purposes of their collections, and the contexts in which they are created. The chapter concludes by considering some of the emerging trends in art museums from the opening up of storage to visitors to collections that are entirely digital and virtual.