
An architecture museum is a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
dedicated to educating visitors about
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
in general or with a focus on a specific
architectural style
An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
. Architecture museums may also educate visitors on the traditional history of architecture or art, which can provide useful context for many architecture exhibits. They are often chartered with the principle of advancing public education on how design can positively impact the human environment.
Some architecture museums, such as the
Chicago Athenaeum
The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture, ...
also educate visitors in a variety of other related fields, such as
urban design
Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban de ...
,
landscape design
Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and gard ...
,
interior design
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...
, and
historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
.
The world's first museum dedicated solely to the discipline of architecture was
Shchusev Museum of Architecture in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1934, followed by the
Museum of Finnish Architecture in 1956.
[Shchusev State Museum of Architecture: About the Museum](_blank)
. Accessed 25 January 2019. Other museums are not entirely dedicated to architecture but do contain architecture sections (such as
Museums of Metz in
Metz, France
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est r ...
), architecture halls (such as
Chicago Athenaeum
The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture, ...
, in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, US), or architecture galleries (such as
University of South Australia
The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Austral ...
's Architecture Museum in
Mount Gambier, South Australia
Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier (volcano), Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about sou ...
).
The
International Confederation of Architectural Museums is an international organization for architecture museums. Members consist of museums, centers, collections and other institutions that offer permanent exhibitions or dedicated galleries on architecture.
Ownership, venues, size and exhibitions
As for ownership and operation, some architecture museums, such
Galleri Rom
Galleri Rom is an architectural gallery in Oslo, Norway. The "room" for art and architecture is an independent center operated by private owners with support from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture, and is located at Maridalsveien 3.
The gal ...
, in
Oslo, Norway
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, are privately owned. Others, like
Museo Nacional de Arquitectura, in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
, are a publicly owned national patrimony. Still others, like the
National Building Museum
The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...
, in Washington, D.C., are public institutions but privately operated.
In terms of the venues for these museums, some architecture museums are located in former houses, mansions, or residences, such as
Museo de la Arquitectura Ponceña. Other museums, on the other hand, are housed in structures specifically designed to accommodate an architecture museum, such as the
Canadian Centre for Architecture
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; french: Centre Canadien d'Architecture) is a museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street ...
(CCA). The
museum architecture in such architecture museums has been specifically designed and tailored to the purpose for that space. Architecture museums can also be "housed" in the
open air
Open air, open-air or openair may refer to:
*'' Open Air'', a BBC television program
* Open-air cinema or outdoor cinema
* Open-air concert, a concert taking place outside
*Open-air museum, a distinct type of museum exhibiting its collections out- ...
, such as Japan's
Meiji-mura
is an open-air architectural museum/theme park in Inuyama, near Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, Japan. It was opened on March 18, 1965. The museum preserves historic buildings from Japan's Meiji (1867–1912), Taishō (1912–1926), and early S ...
. Overall, house-based architecture museums abound: other examples of house-based architecture museums are
Schifferstadt, in
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the inter ...
,
Rietveld Schröder House, in
Utrecht, Netherlands
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Neth ...
, and
Lluís Domènech i Montaner House-Museum in
Canet de Mar,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
.
As for displays and exhibitions, architecture museums may display exhibitions relating the history of architecture of a certain region, such as
German Architecture Museum
The German Architecture Museum (german: Deutsches Architekturmuseum, links=no) (DAM) is located on the Museumsufer in Frankfurt, Germany. Housed in an 18th-century building, the interior has been re-designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers in 1984 as ...
(
diachronic
Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach (from grc, συν- "together" and "time") considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic ...
), but others, such as the
Museum of Ponce Architecture focuses on a particular architectural style (
Ponce Creole) -
synchronic
Synchronic may refer to:
* ''Synchronic'' (film), a 2019 American science fiction film starring Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie
*Synchronic analysis, the analysis of a language at a specific point of time
*Synchronicity, the experience of two or m ...
.
Some architecture museums are based in very large cities or large metropolitan areas, but the architecture museum itself may be quite small; one example of this is the
Skyscraper Museum in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
Awards
The biennial
International Highrise Award The International Highrise Award (german: Internationaler Hochhaus Preis) is an international award in architectural design. The award is bestowed to "a structure that combines exemplary sustainability, external shape and internal spatial quality, n ...
, is granted in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...
to the "a structure that combines exemplary sustainability, external shape and internal spatial quality, not to mention social aspects, to create a model design." The award was first given in 2003 and it was the brainchild of a partnership between the
City of Frankfurt
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...
, the
German Architecture Museum
The German Architecture Museum (german: Deutsches Architekturmuseum, links=no) (DAM) is located on the Museumsufer in Frankfurt, Germany. Housed in an 18th-century building, the interior has been re-designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers in 1984 as ...
and
DekaBank
DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale is the central provider of asset management and capital market solutions of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. It is registered in both Frankfurt and Berlin, with main operational headquarters in Frankfurt. It traces i ...
.
[IHP 2004, Jury, Ingeborg Flagge](_blank)
- IHP The prize, a
statuette
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cla ...
and
EUR
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
50,000 is awarded to the planners and developers jointly.
The award consists of a
statuette
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cla ...
and
EUR
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
50,000, which are awarded jointly to the planners and developers winning the award.
The
American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowshi ...
grants professional awards every year to architecture museums and art displays. Some of the award-winning projects have been:
Perez Art Museum Miami, that won the award for Resiliency by Design, the
Teardrop Park
Teardrop Park is a public park in lower Manhattan, in Battery Park City, near the site of the World Trade Center. It was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a New York City landscape architecture firm. The park includes art des ...
, winner in the General Design Category and
Mesa Arts Center
The Mesa Arts Center is a performing and visual arts complex in downtown Mesa, Arizona. At more than square feet, the $95 million facility, completed in 2005, is the largest comprehensive arts campus in the state.Mesa Arts Center. (n.d.). ''Fa ...
, a General Design Honor Award winner.
See also
*
Schifferstadt
*
Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum
Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum is the earliest known public museum. It dates to circa 530 BCE. The curator was Ennigaldi, the daughter of Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It was in the state of Ur, in the modern-day Dhi Qar Gove ...
*
International Council of Museums
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums, maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1946, I ...
*
International Museum Day
International Museum Day (IMD) is an international day held annually on or around 18 May, coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The event highlights a specific theme which changes every year reflecting a relevant theme or ...
(18 May)
*
List of museums
A museum is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temp ...
*
.museum
museum is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession, as these groups are defined by the International Council ...
*
Museum education
Museum education is a specialized field devoted to developing and strengthening the education role of informal education spaces and institutions such as museums.
In a critical report called ''Excellence and Equity'' published in 1992 by the Ameri ...
*
Museum fatigue
Museum fatigue is a state of physical or mental fatigue caused by the experience of exhibits in museums and similar cultural institutions. The collection of phenomena that characterize museum fatigue was first described in 1916, and has since rece ...
*
Museum label
A museum label, also referred to as a caption or tombstone, is a label describing an object exhibited in a museum or one introducing a room or area.
*
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (Architecture and Heritage City) is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known as Musée n ...
*
Types of museum
References
{{Authority control
Types of museums
Architecture museums