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During the mid-nineteenth century a debate arose over the form and functions of the public art museum in Britain. Various occurrences caused new debates in Parliament and in the press about the purposes of the public museum which checked the relative complacency with which London's national collections had hitherto been run. This book examines these debates and their influence on the development of professionalism within the museum, trends in collecting and tendencies in museum architecture and decoration. In so doing it accounts for the general development of the London museums between 1850 and 1880, with particular reference to the National Gallery. This involves analysis of art display and its relations with art historiography, alongside institutional and architectural developments at the British Museum, the South Kensington Museum and the National Gallery. It is argued that the underpinning factor in all of these developments was a reformulation of the public museum's mission, which was in turn related to the electoral reform movement. In a potential situation of mass enfranchisement, the 'masses' should be well educated; the museum was openly identified as a useful institution in this sense. This consideration also influenced approaches to collecting and arranging artworks and to configuring their architectural setting within the museum, allowing for displays to be instructive in specific ways. Dissatisfaction with the British Museum and National Gallery buildings and their locations led to proposals to move the national collections, possibly merging and redefining them. Again the socio-political usefulness of the museum was key in determining where the national collections should be housed and in what form of building. This rich debate is analysed with full references to the various forums in and out of Parliament. Part one covers these issues in a thematic structure, examining all of the national collections, their interrelationships and their gradual development of discrete (yet sometimes arbitrary) museological territories. Part two focuses on the individual case of the National Gallery, observing how museological debate was brought to bear on the development of a specific institution. Every architectural development and redisplay is closely analysed in order to gauge the extent to which the products of debate were carried through into practice, and to comprehend the reasons why no museological grand project emerged in London. This book would not have been possible were it not for the help and support of Malcolm Baker, Anthony Burton, David Carter, Jonathan Conlin, the late Francis Haskell, Hero Lotti, Donata Levi, Rhiannon Mason, Susan Pearce, Barbara Pezzini, Charles Saumarez Smith, Isobel Siddons, Paul Tucker, Matti Watton, Giles Waterfield and the late Clive Wainwright. Special thanks are due to Paola Barocchi, under whose enlightened tutelage this book began life as a doctoral thesis, to my editors Tom Gray and Sarah Charters, to my friends Martin Barnes and Imke Valentien, to the various branches of my family in the UK and Italy and, last but by no means least, to my wife Erica Bemporad.

Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of museum building around the world and the subsequent publication of multiple texts dedicated to the subject. Museum Architecture: A new biography focuses on the stories we tell of museum buildings in order to explore the nature of museum architecture and the problems of architectural history when applied to the museum and gallery. Starting from a discussion of the key issues in contemporary museum design, the book explores the role of architectural history in the prioritisation of specific stories of museum building and museum architects and the exclusion of other actors from the history of museum making. These omissions have contemporary relevance and impact directly on the ways in which the physical structures of museums are shaped. Theoretically, the book places a particular emphasis on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Henri Lefebvre in order to establish an understanding of buildings as social relations; the outcome of complex human interactions and relationships. The book utilises a micro history, an in-depth case study of the 'National Gallery of the North', the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, to expose the myriad ways in which museum architecture is made. Coupled with this detailed exploration is an emphasis on contemporary museum design which utilises the understanding of the social realities of museum making to explore ideas for a socially sustainable museum architecture fit for the twenty-first century.

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 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 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.0For 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.

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.

Over the last few decades, contemporary museums have undergone a radical change: they have become public places that promote socio-economic sustainability through recreation, commercial, and cultural activities. This shift has altered public perception of museums globally and had a profound impact on today’s museums, resulting in new prototypes that differ significantly from prior ones. This study tries to answer the following questions: How far have Egyptian museums evolved over the last decade? what degree can the radical transformation in museum design assist in fulfilling Egypt’s SDGs? To answer these questions, this study attempts to explore how far Egyptian museums have adapted to this fundamental change, by tracing the evolution of Egyptian museum design compared with the findings of the author’s previous thesis in 2012 and Egypt’s SDGs. This study used qualitative methods, which began with a thorough literature review, followed by a comparative analysis of the selected case studies. The findings revealed that the contemporary design of recent Egyptian museums, by including social and economic activities, significantly supports the national and global agenda in terms of SDG. This article provides architects, designers, and policy makers with clear design criteria to enhance the social and economic role of museums, towards fulfilling SDGs.

The past decade was characterised by a real museum boom which persists today. Throughout the world museums have been built that are as unique as the art they contain, and the process continues. This volume assembles approximately 15 of these museums, designed and realised by the who's who of the architect scene. The architecture of the museums is an artwork in itself. They include buildings such as the Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Art Centre designed by Zaha Hadid and the Zeitz Museum for contemporary African art in Cape Town. With designs that extend from exciting to dynamic to sensuously beautiful the architects have created places of encounter, communication and inspiration which make the world of art accessible to visitors in ways that are not always mapped out by curators. The volume shows magnificent photographs and documents through drawings the development of the buildings as well as the challenges of architecture today.

Museum architecture is essential for preserving cultural heritage. Understanding the spatio-temporal evolution of visitor preferences, image perceptions, and driving factors is vital for promoting cultural development. However, traditional methods such as questionnaires and interviews face challenges in elucidating how exhibition layouts, environmental facilities, and service quality affect visitor experience and satisfaction. In this study, 30 museums in 6 categories were selected as samples, and over 64,000 public online reviews from Dianping and Ctrip were selected as data sets. Kernel density and standard deviational ellipse methods revealed the spatio-temporal evolution of museum space preferences (2016–2024). TF-IDF and LDA algorithms identified key image perception themes. Visitor satisfaction was then evaluated with SnowNLP sentiment analysis to examine the dynamic correlation between the perception themes and satisfaction. The findings showed: 1) Museum visitors were highly concentrated in eastern coastal regions, with spatial distribution evolving from single-core to multi-core clusters, gradually expanding into central areas (e.g., Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi). 2) Museum image perception has shifted from object-centered to more human-centered experiences, with significant differences across the various categories. 3) Over 75% of visitors reported positive experiences, with ethnography museums showing the highest satisfaction in 2024 ( Pro  = 0.922), whereas history museums consistently had the lowest. 4) Satisfaction drivers were dynamic, with 85.26% of perception themes significantly correlated with satisfaction ( p  < 0.01), with rich collections, distinctive features, immersive experiences, and diverse visitation forms identified as the primary contributors to positive visitor experiences. Based on the comprehensive perspective of typology and spatio-temporal dynamic evolution, this study not only provides empirical support for museum space optimization, but also provides new ideas and strategies for functional research and methodological insights of public spaces.