Reflections on the beauty of austerity in Kunstmuseum Kolumba

Photo by 010Lab on Flickr.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.” – Woodrow Wilson

Kolumba is probably the most beautiful and thoughtful museum experience in the world. At least, the world I have seen. The museum is built on top of, and integrated with, the remains of the former St. Columba church, in Cologne. The intensely minimalistic interior with concrete floors, walls and ceilings and an occasional wooden detail goes well with perhaps the most austere exhibition design imaginable. Everything, absolutely everything is in perfect balance, and nothing can be taken away. Sometimes it feels even the visitor is part of the design.

Photo by Fabian K. on Flickr.

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Three possible designs for architecture of the museum of the future

Yesterday we presented the book Sketches for a National History Museum. However, flipping through the book and talking with the young architects involved, I realise it could also be called “Sketches for a Museum in the 21^st century”. Three young European architecture firms came up with three different possibilities for future museum architecture. Here’s how they envision the architecture of the museum of the future.

An enormous hall

An extremely spacious central hall makes me think immediately of Tate Modern. If you think that is cool architecture, however, 51N4E’s proposal might be your dream come true. Their design “Hall of History” consists of a ten-storeys-high wall with exposition spaces, overlooking an enormous hall where flexible expositions of all sizes can be organised. From the “wall” a visitor can look out at what happens in the “hall”, and vice versa.

I love how this design makes it possible to tell larger stories. Imagine the wall being a timeline of art history. From the hall you can get a sense of what influenced who etc. whereas in the spaces in the wall you can see individual art works from a certain period.

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What is good museum architecture?

In a couple of days we’ll present a book with sketches for future museums. The book “Sketches for a National Museum of History” explores possibilities for museum architecture. Kenneth Frampton and Hans Ibelings wrote essays, researchers at the Berlage Institute made design sketches, and three young European architecture firms, 51N4E, Baukuh and Monadnock, submitted plans to encourage thinking about a new museum architecture. I had a chance to look at the book and I must say it’s inspiring and the designs are daring and different from what you’d expect.

Yesterday we launched a small website to encourage thinking about good museum architecture. It focuses on six themes – connect, show, sense, open, move and site – and hopefully will spark some new ideas about good museum architecture. You’re free to add your ideas (don’t let the Dutch scare you, it’s a bilingual website!).

So, what is good museum architecture?

That, I’m afraid, is a question without an answer. Or, with many answers. The book explores how architecture can deal with certain characteristics of museums. For instance, how architecture influences the presentation of objects (“show”). The two examples below are from the book and show how a church and a museum built on top of a chapel show their objects. I like them both, but believe they’re very different in their architectonic approach.

Pastor van Ars Church (design Aldo van Eyck, photo m.by) and Kolumba (design Peter Zumthor, photo seier+seier).

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DOK Delft, inspirational library concepts

Photo by Henk Kosters on Flickr.com (CC BY-NC-SA)

Libraries can be inspiring places, and not only because of their books. I’ve written about the public library of Amsterdam and its astounding interior design before. This week I’ve visited the public library of Delft, DOK. In 2008 the shifted librarian called it the world’s most modern library. Three years later, the “library concept center” still made a tremendous impression on me.

Five great things about DOK I took home:

1. A good understanding of a library’s future role in society

Libraries are about making information accessible to people. Libraries that are not used by the people, fail their task. Books have become increasingly cheaper and information more easily accessible. To the greater audience there’s hardly a need for the traditional library. There is, however, a need to be guided in the quest for information, to detach from the busy society, to discover new things, to meet people and learn from each other. DOK is more an “information community centre” than a library. They have an art library in the building, organize debates about literature but also finace, … This might very well be the future of more cultural institutions than just libraries.

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Public places that work (for me)

Today the book Beyond the black box and the white cube (English title, Dutch book, ridiculous) went on sale. Obviously, I haven’t read it yet, but it’s high on my wishlist. The short movie that accompanies the book shows how innovative architecture can lead to a better cultural experience. The museum of the future needs such a building. Moreover, as I believe the museum of the future is in the heart of society, it has to be in an amazing environment, open to public.

If I were to build a museum, I’d be inspired by these wonderful public places that just work (for me). Read the rest of this entry »