Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

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New functions that emerged in
the second half of the 20 th century
led to major architectural changes:
the increase in the number of temporary
exhibitions led to a different
distribution of collections between
the permanent exhibition and storage
spaces; the development of visitor
facilities, educational workshops
and rest areas, in particular the creation
of large multi-purpose spaces;
the development of bookshops, restaurants
and shops for selling items
relating to the exhibitions. But at the
same time, the decentralisation by
regrouping and by subcontracting
some museum operations required
the building or installation of specialised
autonomous buildings: fi rstly,
restoration workshops and laboratories
which could specialise while serving
several museums, then storage
areas located away from the exhibition
spaces.
The architect is the person who
designs and draws the plans for
the building and who directs its
construction. More broadly speaking,
the person who designs the
envelope around the collections,
the staff and the public. Seen from
this perspective, architecture affects
all the elements connected with the
space and light within the museum,
aspects which might seem to be of
secondary importance but which
prove to be determining factors for
the meaning of the display (arrangement
in chronological order, visibility
from all angles, neutral background,
etc.). Museum buildings are thus
designed and built according to an
architectural programme drawn up
by the scientifi c and administrative
heads of the establishment. However,
the decisions about defi nition of
the programme and the limits of the
architect’s intervention are not always
distributed in this way. Architecture,
as art or the method for building and
installing a museum, can be seen as
a complete oeuvre, one that integrates
the entire museum mechanism.
This approach, sometimes advocated
by architects, can only be envisaged
when the architectural programme
encompasses all the museographical
issues, which is often far from being
the case.
It can happen that the programmes
given to the architects include
the interior design, allowing the
latter – if no distinction is made
between the areas for general use
and those for museographical use
– to give free rein to their ‘creativity’,
sometimes to the detriment of
the museum. Some architects have
specialised in staging exhibitions
and have become stage designers or
exhibition designers. Those who can
call themselves ‘museographers’, or
specialists in museum practice are
rare, unless their practices include
this specifi c type of competence.
The present diffi culties of museum
architecture lie in the confl ict which
logically exists between, on the one
hand, the ambitions of the architect
(who will fi nd himself in the spotlight
due to the international visibility
of this type of building today), and on