ABSTRACT

Reshaping Museum Space pulls together the views of an international group of museum professionals, architects, designers and academics highlights the complexity, significance and malleability of museum space,  and provides reflections upon recent developments in museum architecture and exhibition design.

Various chapters concentrate on the process of architectural and spatial reshaping, and the problems of navigating the often contradictory agendas and aspirations of the broad range of professionals and stakeholders involved in any new project.

Contributors review recent new build, expansion and exhibition projects questioning the types of museum space required at the beginning of the twenty-first century and highlighting a range of possibilities for creative museum design.

Essential reading for anyone involved in creating, designing and project managing the development of museum exhibits, and vital reading for students of the discipline.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|56 pages

On the nature of museum space

chapter 1|17 pages

Rethinking museum architecture

Towards a site-specific history of production and use

chapter 3|14 pages

Space and the machine

Adaptive museums, pervasive technology and the new gallery environment

chapter 4|10 pages

Creative space

part II|68 pages

Architectural reshaping

chapter 5|13 pages

From cultural institution to cultural consumer experience

Manchester Art Gallery Expansion Project

chapter 6|17 pages

Spatial culture, way-finding and the educational message

The impact of layout on the spatial, social and educational experiences of visitors to museums and galleries

chapter 7|13 pages

The Grande Galerie de l'Evolution

An alternative cognitive experience

chapter 8|10 pages

Producing a public for art

Gallery space in the twenty-first century

chapter 9|13 pages

Towards a new museum architecture

Narrative and representation

part III|70 pages

Inside spaces

chapter 10|13 pages

Building on Victorian ideas

chapter 11|12 pages

Representing Enlightenment space

chapter 12|12 pages

The studio in the gallery?

chapter 13|15 pages

When worlds collide

The contemporary museum as art gallery

chapter 14|16 pages

Constructing and communicating equality

The social agency of museum space

part IV|37 pages

Creative space

chapter 15|12 pages

Threshold fear

chapter 17|12 pages

The vital museum