The Past Reborn: 6 Extraordinary Ways Architects Are Modernizing the Museum

The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.  

There’s an old-fashioned archetype of the museum as a sterile, serious space steeped in rules. In the hands of architects today, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The contemporary museum is a time-traveler of sorts, bringing the past and the present face to face with mesmerizing acuity. These modernized places of preservation spark curiosity, debate and, crucially, ensure lessons from our ancestors endure.

Architecture has a powerful role to play in this mission. Exceptional spatial design can shape our engagement with the past and bring to life that which is long gone. Immersive, innovative and conscious of their place in the wider world, these winning projects from the 11^th A+Awards capture the dynamic new spirit of the museum. Read on to discover the extraordinary ways architects are reinventing these monuments to history…

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1. Embracing Ecological Challenges

Bundanon Art Museum + Bridge by Kerstin Thompson Architects, Illaroo, Australia

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Sustainable Cultural/Institutional Building
Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Environment

Nestled in a region of New South Wales that’s bore the brunt of wildfires and flooding for millennia, this art museum called for a radical design that both celebrated the landscape and negotiated its challenges. The result is an intuitive project where art and the environment collide, and in the process, elevate each other.

Above ground, the bridge-like structure that houses the creative learning center hovers over the land, supported by a metal stilt frame. Ingeniously, it allows flood water to circumvent the building and flow beneath it. Meanwhile, the art museum and collection store, showcasing works gifted by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, are embedded beneath the earth. This subterranean addition carves out a secure exhibition space that’s resistant to fire and climate fluctuations. The land’s ecological challenges are turned into opportunities for innovation.

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2. Celebrating the Sensory

ANOHA—The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin by Olson Kundig, Berlin, Germany

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Gallery & Exhibition Spaces

The creation of the children’s wing of the Jewish Museum Berlin saw the hall of an old flower market repurposed into a whimsical world of discovery. Standing 23 feet (7 meters) tall, a circular wooden shell, modeled after Noah’s Arc, envelops the project. Despite the dynamism within, the structure is considerate of its context, the curving lines reflecting the sweeping Brutalist ribs overhead.

Inside, the space is a sensory playground. More than 150 sculptural animals crafted from familiar, salvaged materials take center stage, making palpable the principles of adaptive reuse. A host of interactive exhibits encourage problem-solving and teamwork. Meanwhile, animal habitats have been translated into immersive playscapes that young visitors can explore. Here, the museum becomes an active space of tactile discovery.

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3. Experimenting With Light

Orange County Museum of Art by Morphosis Architects and TM Light, Costa Mesa, California

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Light
Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Museum

This astonishing museum in the Californian city of Costa Mesa is a skillful masterclass in orchestrating light, both natural and artificial. Rising amid the urban topography, the sinuous structure is punctuated by ribbons of glazing. In the heart of the museum, light pours in from a vast atrium. Floating walkways with glazed floors bisect the space, allowing daylight to pass through.

In the main gallery space, crisp white walls provide a neutral canvas for artwork. Overhead, the scalloped fabric ceiling treatment hides an ingenious lighting system, dispersing a soft, ambient glow across the room. Up on the rooftop, sculptural pole lights with malleable heads allow the terrace to be reconfigured for exhibitions, events and screenings. Illumination here is a key architectural tool, combining artistry with intuitive functionality.

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4. Forging New Topographies

Museum of Ethnography by NAPUR Architect, Budapest, Hungary

Popular Choice Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Museum
Popular Choice Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Facades

Budapest’s Museum of Ethnography makes a remarkable return to Városliget, the park where its collection was first exhibited back in 1896. Fast-forward some 127 years and its articulation is somewhat changed. A bold, concave volume that sits in dialogue with the surrounding greenery was conceived to accommodate the museum’s vast collection of 250,000 artifacts.

At its center, the unique curving form sits flush with the park, creating a gateway between the green space and the city hubbub. 60% of the museum is sequestered beneath the ground. At surface level, the verdant living roof reads as an extension of Városliget, where the local community can relax amid the planting. The volume’s arched wings are supported by a post-tensioned structure typically used in the construction of bridges — a rare use of this kind of engineering in a public building.

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5. Getting Creative With Curvilinear Lines

Bronx Children’s Museum by O’Neill McVoy Architects, Bronx County, New York

Popular Choice Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Educational Interiors

In stark contrast to New York City’s famous grid street system, the interior architecture of the Bronx Children’s Museum embraces all things curvilinear. Sited at an intersection between the city and the Harlem River in an old 1920s powerhouse, the space is shaped by organic geometries, evoking the rhythms of the water and the meandering riverbank. Fittingly, natural and reclaimed materials are used throughout the scheme, from stone, wood and glass to cork.

The museum’s scale replicates a child’s perspective, emphasizing accessible, open spaces. Movement through the zones flows naturally via ramps, while acrylic and wood partitions diverge, spiral and unite, gently guiding the journey of spatial users. The exhibits increase in elevation, culminating in a bridge to an interactive performance mezzanine. This scintillating scheme is a playground for the imagination.

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6. Reinvigorating Cultural Values

National Museum of Korean Literature by STLarchitects, Seoul, South Korea

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Unbuilt Institutional

Envisaged as a traditional Korean village, an emblem of hospitality, this concept design for a museum in Seoul is deeply rooted in the nation’s heritage. Korean literature has historically positioned the natural world as a friend of civilisation, two parts of the same symbiotic whole. This daring scheme seeks to place the two concepts in harmony once more.

Located at the foot of Bukhansan Mountain, the structure seeks to mediate between the city and the organic environment. Seoul’s bustling streets will soften into lilting pathways in the museum’s grounds, while the pervasive concrete will blur into trees and rock formations. Inside, undulating ceilings over the exhibition spaces will evoke the forms of overlapping leaves. The project is a profound gateway, both geographically and culturally.

The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.