
Architecture For Culture
Rethinking Museums
Beatrice Grenier(Author)
Rizzoli International Publications (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2025
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-8478-4571-2 (ISBN)
Description
Architects have been reformulating the experience of the museum and art itself, transforming the museum s definition: The Louvre Abu Dhabi as a replica of a museum-city, inspired by Paris; the Guggenheim Museum and the Centre Pompidou as drive-through museums, shaped in an age when the car is a protagonist; the new wing of the American Museum of Natural History in New York reimagines the institution with organic forms, as a bridge over the philosophical divide between culture and nature; the Hangzhou National Archives of Publications and Culture is built as an imitation of an art piece, to be an immersive experience of history and culture; the upcoming Cartier Foundation in front of the Louvre in Paris, with its mobile giant platforms, expresses the needs for dynamic architecture to be the site of the invention of culture. Through this analysis, the museum of the twenty-first century emerges as the most important site of experimentation for architecture and art. The essential role of the museum as an enabler of a different kind of encyclopedia, as a necessary place in our cities in its potential to call into question the dichotomy between the urban and the wild, or as withholding a democratization potential in including new forms of technology as forms of knowledge and culture is catalyzed through architecture. Only through the museum can we understand what art is and what its growing role in our future urban environment might be.
Reviews / Votes
"The author does not question the necessity of museums today, but she does think "too little critical attention has been given to the role and agency of architecture in defining its new forms." More than merely a depot for storing and displaying art or other artifacts, Grenier sees the museum "as an incubator and laboratory of urban culture." Across nine "The Museum Is ______" chapters, Grenier explores how the role of museums is changing. What might resemble a survey of contemporary museum architecture at first flip, the book is more accurately nine critical essays that discuss museums-both new and old ones, as well places that usually existing outside of what readers might consider museums-in terms of agency and impact more than space and function." - A WEEKLY DOSE OF ARCHITECTURE BOOKS (JOHN HILL)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
200 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS
Dimensions
Height: 255 mm
Width: 196 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
928 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8478-4571-2 (9780847845712)
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
Beatrice Grenier is a Paris-based curator, writer, and editor. As the director of strategic projects at the Fondation Cartier pour l art contemporain, she is currently working on the institution s architectural project for its new headquarters in Paris.