The yr 2025 has marked a growth in museum structure, with new buildings and buzzy expansions underway worldwide. As a number of initiatives come to fruition, the present crop of designs affords an opportune second to take inventory of museum structure at the moment. Whereas many endeavours are progressive—notably outdoors the US—a number of the greatest commissions of the yr have been both putting for the improper causes or instantly forgettable.
As homes of artistry and tradition, museums have vital flexibility relating to look. Every has its necessities, however architects can flex their artistic muscle tissue with progressive designs which may not match different functions. It’s no marvel, then, that a number of the most fun designs globally—like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi in Rome—are museums. These usually are not with out controversy, after all, however they do create intrigue and begin a dialog. Given this chance to be daring, it’s much more disappointing when architects earn museum commissions solely to ship a boring design.
A buzzworthy new constructing within the US is the Princeton College Artwork Museum (PUAM) in New Jersey. Designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with the manager architect Cooper Robertson, the museum options darkish serrated concrete and powerful vertical strains alongside the outside. Spanning a number of wings of differing volumes, the ribbed surfaces have minimal home windows, masking the actions inside. Although the lower-level home windows do lighten the design, the museum recollects a menacing workplace one may see in a movie. General it creates a way of foreboding.
In judging PUAM’s exterior, I’m reminded of a dialog I had final spring with Martina Droth, the director of the Yale Middle for British Artwork (YCBA) in New Haven, Connecticut. On the time, we had been discussing the reopening of the museum’s Louis Kahn-designed constructing, which had been closed for refurbishment. “It’s tough for us to current a pleasant face,” Droth informed me. “Some folks don’t know that we’re a museum due to our identify, or are intimidated due to our educational affiliation.” To assist entice guests, the YCBA is actively programming eye-catching artwork in its foyer. The museum’s entrance desk and bookstore even acquired an award from the American Institute of Architects in Connecticut. Certainly the brand new PUAM will face the identical challenges because the YCBA.
The Princeton College Artwork Museum Picture: Richard Barnes Courtesy Princeton College Artwork Museum
The same story in two Portlands
Designs with components just like PUAM are popping up throughout US museums. In Oregon, the Portland Artwork Museum accomplished an enlargement referred to as the Mark Rothko Pavilion. The brand new area once more options distinct volumes and powerful vertical strains from window seams alongside the façade. Not like PUAM’s darkish, serrated concrete, the Oregon museum welcomes guests with an expanse of home windows, some cloudy to diffuse direct daylight. Designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects with Vinci Hamp Architects, the enlargement resembles a close-up of PUAM on first look.
Likewise, the Portland Museum of Artwork in Maine is present process an enlargement to unify its campus. Designed by Lever Structure, the constructing options sustainable mass timber and hovering façades of home windows which might be divided into cubes. Counting on distinct vertical strains and with volumes clearly delineated, the similarities with Adjaye’s aesthetic are clear.
To be truthful, sturdy vertical strains and pared-down façades usually are not new in museum structure. The architect Renzo Piano made this a staple, incomes him commissions worldwide such because the Menil Assortment in Houston and Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland. However Piano is aware of when to throw in a curve, protruding armature or industrial materials. Furthermore, I’m focusing solely on the surface of museum buildings, however because the barrier between the general public and the artwork contained inside, the outside impression may be the distinction between a customer passing by the door and strolling by.
Extra dynamic than PUAM is Adjaye’s different new US constructing in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, the Studio Museum in Harlem, which consists of darkish, hefty cubes of various sizes stacked on high of each other. Partitions of home windows fill some cubes, welcoming the general public with a glimpse of the actions inside. The practically stable quantity that sits atop the constructing feels clunky, nevertheless it juxtaposes the expanses of home windows. Nonetheless, the Studio Museum bears traits of at the moment’s traits, maybe a results of Adyaje’s thumbprint and his broader affect. Although each establishments have distanced themselves from the agency after David Adjaye was accused in 2023 of sexual assault (he denies the allegations), the architect’s imaginative and prescient stays clear. However in comparison with different new buildings, it’s straightforward to be disenchanted by his fashion.
Take, for instance, the Buffalo AKG Artwork Museum in upstate New York, which tapped Shohei Shigematsu of OMA to broaden its campus with a predominantly glass, jewel box-shaped constructing that emanates mild. Or look to Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design for the Broad in Los Angeles, each its present constructing and the enlargement. The unique construction, one giant quantity draped in a lacy white veil, instantly piques curiosity. For the enlargement, the agency balanced the veil with one other giant dice, this one enveloped in a easy, gray exterior with mushy recessions ending in home windows and viewing platforms. The enlargement, which the museum’s founding director Joanne Heyler says “is designed to sign entry, playfulness and a beneficiant embrace of the customer”, is exemplary of how a museum can help progressive structure whereas satisfying the wants of its assortment.
The Powerhouse Parramatta in Western Sydney affords one other elegant instance. Abutting each an city centre with skyscrapers and a tree-lined neighbourhood, the constructing by Moreau Kusunoki options distinct exterior columns oriented to resemble the letters A, N, W and X. Along with delineating totally different ranges of the constructing, these letters of their particular person rows break up the façade and obtain a lace-like geometric design.
Certainly, trying outdoors the US affords an abundance of thrilling new museum initiatives. Gehry’s design for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is nothing wanting spectacular, with its cascading pile of geometric shapes and juxtaposing steel, glass and concrete surfaces. Additionally in Abu Dhabi is Foster + Companions’ Zayed Nationwide Museum, that includes hovering vertical latticed wings impressed by the area’s historical past of falconry. In Rotterdam, a stainless-steel double helix crowns the Fenix museum of migration. Providing perception into simply how far design can attain, these buildings will undoubtedly draw guests as excited to see the exteriors as they’re to expertise the artwork housed inside.
As traits go, one can solely hope the fashion spreading by US museum design at the moment will finally fall out of trend. All types of creativity may use moments of self-reflection; maybe it’s time some museum structure has its personal.
