Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco has been designed by Mark Dziewulski and will join the ranks of this list when it is completed in 2019.
Ever since I.M Pei transformed The Louvre’s facade with his glass pyramid, and Frank Gerhy’s Guggenheim Museum Bilboa redefined museums as architecture-led destinations, architects worldwide have been creating iconic museums that have expanded the visitor experience.
We scoured the world’s best and came up with this list:
1. Guggenheim Museum Bilboa, Spain
What has become known as the “Bilboa Effect”, this building by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry opened in 1997 and revolutionised how we think about museum design as a brand. Positioned along the Nervion River it sits beautifully within the site, its interconnected forms in stone, glass and titanium catching the light. With a total of 256,000 sq ft it has more than three times the exhibition space of the collections New York and Venice galleries combined.
This is Spanish artist Santiago Calatrava’s first building in the States and was completed in 2001. It superbly fuses engineering, architecture and sculpture. The Quadracci Pavilion is technically an extension of Eero Saarinen’s War Memorial on the lakefront of Michigan Lake in Milwaukee, but Calatrava separated the building as a separate pavilion which is further linked by a suspended footbridge to downtown Milwaukee. Of note the structure has a movable wing-like foot that opens up to a wingspan of 217 feet.
3. Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Italy
Designed by Renzo Piano, this former Fiat factory, known as the “Lingotto”, can be found in Turin, Italy. Today it well surpassed its roots. The gallery is located on the top floor with the subterranean multi-level complex typically holding a shopping mall, cinemas, hotels, theatres etc… It took Piano from 1982 to 2002 to complete.
4. Denver Art Museum , USA
The latest wing of the Denver Art Museum was designed as a joint venture between Daniel Libeskind, whose projects are both loved and scorned, and Denver firm Davis Partnership Architects. It opened in 2006 and is known as the Frederic C. Hamilton building, like many of its generation of museums it is clad in titanium. It is one of several buildings under the umbrella of this huge museum which is known for its collection of American Indian art.
5. The Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum, USA
The Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid Architects for the Michigan State University (USA) opened in 2012. It features a facade of pleated glass and stainless steel, and 70% its 46,000 sq ft facility is dedicated to exhibition space.
6. Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, Brazil
Also known as Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (“MAC”), this iconic building by Oscar Niemeyer was completed in 1996 and sits atop a crest at Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Suggesting a sci-fi space ship, the Contemporary Art Museum seems to hover on top of a cliff. Winding ramps lead down to a plaza. The structural engineer on this project was Bruno Contarini.
This building won the 2010 Stirling Prize and was named the “World’s Best Building of the Year” at the third Architecture Festival held in Barcelona for its “ribbons of connectivity”. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the museum is in Rome and was completed in 2009. It construction area is 27,000 sam.
Ordos is a newly created city formed in 2001 in Inner Mongolia. This museum was designed by MAD Architects, headed up by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun and Yosuike Hayano, as part of that new vision on a site that was previously the Gobi Desert. Inspired by Fuller’s Manhattan Dome and in reaction to the city’s rigid masterplan, the organic form has a glazed roof that draws light into the museum, and has a futuristic shell of louvers. Building area is 41,227 sam with a height of 40 meters. It was completed in 2011.
9. The New Museum, USA
In the heart of New York City the New Museum opened its $US50m seven-story structure on 235 Bowery Street in 2007 with the art world’s eyes turned its way. With a 58,700 sq foot capacity it was designed by the Tokyo-based firm Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa or SANNA, and New York based Gensler.
10. Bundeswehr Military History Museum, Germany
This original building in Dresden was an armory built between 1873-76. It became a museum in 1897 but was closed in 1989 because a newly unified Germany was unsure how this history would fit into new one being forged. In 2001 it decided that it was time to reconsider and awarded, via competition, Daniel Libeskind to transform the museum. The Museum reopened in 2011 with both a new internal and external concept. Libeskind wanted to penetrate the past, his silver arrowhead protruding some five stories, and representing the openness of democratic society. it is Germany’s largest museum.
11. Art Museum Strongoli, Italy
Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au were commissioned to design the new Art Museum Strongoli in Calabria, Italy. Perched atop the Motta Grande, a hill just outside of the city, it is a remarkable landmark. What is distinctive to this building is its cantilevered stainless steel ribbons, that rise off the heavy slab terrace. The roof is a layered construction providing controlled natural lighting into the exhibition spaces and the building has a layer of automatic louvers to control light levels. Its 6,000 sqm of floor space for exhibitions opened in 2008.
12. Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil
Located on the main avenue of São Paulo, it is considered the best art museum in Latin America because of its rich permanent collection. It also stands out for its design, a classic 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi, where main structure is supported by two lateral beams over a 74 meter freestanding span. It is considered a landmark symbol of modern Brazilian architecture.
13. Akron Art Museum, USA
And how about the John S. and James L. Knight Building of the Akron Art Museum, by Wolf Prix of the Vienna firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, which some critics have described as a fashion victim, with disastrous consequences, and an instantly dated-looking overly strenuous flamboyance.
14. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, USA
This six-sided building covered in mirrors opened in 2012 and was designed by London-based architect Farshid Moussavi. Visitors enter the museum to arrive at a full-height atrium, where the wall structure is left exposed and have been painted bright blue. The galleries are built over four-stories of this 34,000 sqf non-collecting museum in Cleveland’s university circle. It sits a sculptural object in itself, its mirrored surfaces engaging and reflecting light and movement.
15. Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York
No list would complete without saluting this great modern house of art. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright the spiral building wedges out as it rises, and is one of the most important architectural landmarks of the 20th century. It opened in 1959 and its design remains timeless. Its internal space is characterised by a spiral ramp and light filtering in from a central skylight. The building underwent renovations and expansion in 1992 and 2005-08.
