The User Perspective on Twenty-First-Century Art Museums

The User Perspective on Twenty-First Century Art Museums explains contemporary museums from the whole gamut of user experiences, whether users are preserving art, creating an exhibit, visiting, or part of institutions that use the architecture for branding. Fourteen museums from the United States, Europe, China, and Australia represent new construction, repurposed buildings, and additions, offering examples for most museum design situations. Each is examined using interviews with key stakeholders, photographs, and analyses of press coverage to identify lessons from the main user groups. User groups vary from project to project depending on conditions and context, so each of the four parts of the book features a summary of the users and issues in that section for quick reference. The book concludes with a practical, straightforward lessons-learned summary and a critical assessment of twenty-first-century museum architecture, programming, and expectations to help you embark on a new building design. Architects, architecture students, museum professionals, and aficionados of museum design will all find helpful insights in these lessons and critiques.

Georgia Lindsay is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Environmental Design Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is co-editor of Revisiting "Social Factors": Advancing Research into People and Place. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Introduction Part 1: Repurposing: Delight in Repurposed Places Chapter 1. Monash University Museum of Art Chapter 2. Long Museum West Bund Part 2: Responding: Highlighting Differences Chapter 3. Museum of Contemporary Art of Australia's Mordant Wing Chapter 4. North Carolina Museum of Art's West Wing Chapter 5. Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavilion Chapter 6. Denver Art Museum's Hamilton Building Part 3: Building New, under 50,000 square feet: Focus and Flexibility Chapter 7. Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Museum Chapter 8. Nanjing Sifang Art Museum Chapter 9. Museum of Contemporary Art - Cleveland Chapter 10. Tree Art Museum Part 4: Building New, over 50,000 square feet: Invitation and Adventure Chapter 11. FRAC Bretagne Chapter 12. New Museum Chapter 13. Museum aan de Stroom Chapter 14. The National Museum of XXI Century Arts (MAXXI) Conclusion: The User Perspective and Users in 21st Century Museums A Brief Note on Methods List of Museums List of Architects Image Credits