
The Global Spectacular
Contemporary Museum Architecture in China and the Arabian Peninsula
Karen Exell(Author)
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Published on 8. May 2018
Book
Hardback
128 pages
978-1-84822-249-6 (ISBN)
Description
This book provides, for the first time, a visual documentation of the wave of 'starchitect'-designed museums under construction in certain Arabian Peninsula states, in China, and in emerging economies such as Azerbaijan and India. It offers a sustained architectural critique of the style of these new museums and suggests they represent a new dynamic in the production of cultural spaces.
Karen Exell argues that projects and finished buildings by the likes of Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Norman Foster+Associates are less connected to regional cultural production than to globalized capitalist modernity, and contrasts this globalised aesthetic with the architecture of smaller museums that responds to more traditional regional materials and construction methods. These projects are less well known, but no less striking in their thoughtful and richly contextualised architectural approach, and reveal a nuanced interpretation of the role and function of contemporary museums.
For anyone seeking to understand the profusion of grand architectural projects within the cultural sector of emerging economies, The Global Spectacular provides invaluable insight into the varying socio-economic contexts driving their development and poses vital questions about their likely impact.
Karen Exell argues that projects and finished buildings by the likes of Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Norman Foster+Associates are less connected to regional cultural production than to globalized capitalist modernity, and contrasts this globalised aesthetic with the architecture of smaller museums that responds to more traditional regional materials and construction methods. These projects are less well known, but no less striking in their thoughtful and richly contextualised architectural approach, and reveal a nuanced interpretation of the role and function of contemporary museums.
For anyone seeking to understand the profusion of grand architectural projects within the cultural sector of emerging economies, The Global Spectacular provides invaluable insight into the varying socio-economic contexts driving their development and poses vital questions about their likely impact.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 259 mm
Width: 197 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
714 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84822-249-6 (9781848222496)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Karen Exell is Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Qatar, and a consultant at Qatar Museums. She directed the MA in Museum and Gallery Practice at UCL Qatar from 2011-2015, after teaching museums studies and holding curatorial positions in university museums in the UK for several years.
Content
1. Introduction: Museum Architecture in China and the Arabian Gulf: A brief history of museum architecture; 2. Contemporary Vernacular: Six case studies from China and the Arabian Gulf; 3. The Art of Restoration: Two case studies from the Arabian Gulf; 4. Deep Context: Three case studies from China; 5. From Local to Global: Architectural expansion: moving beyond the local; 6. The Future is Now: The spectacular new and planned museums of the Arabian Gulf and China