Designing a museum is always an exciting architectural challenge. Museums often come with their own unique needs and constraints--from the art museum that needs specialist spaces for preserving works, to the huge collection that requires extensive archive space, and even the respected institution whose existing heritage building presents a challenge for any new extension. In honor of International Museum Day, we’ve selected 23 stand-out museums from our database, with each ArchDaily editor explaining what makes these buildings some of the best examples of museum architecture out there.
Hufton+Crow
Hufton+Crow are dedicated to creating inspiring and striking photographs of contemporary interior and exterior architecture around the world. As two experienced photographers with complementary skills and competitive characters they offer a unique service because they work as a team – either both simultaneously photographing one project, or by each providing input, critiques and direction of the others work. The outcome is a passionate attention to detail, the most creative approach possible and a reliable and professional service. Above all, it results in beautiful photographs that show buildings at their best – images that describe architecture within the built environment. Hufton+Crow strive to create strong and lasting professional relationships, by listening and attending to their clients’ objectives first. The breadth of their client base and the longevity of these relationships proves the efficacy of this approach. They shoot digitally, believing that it is the format that can provide the most benefit to the client. They also provide professional re-touching and post-production as part of the service.
23 Examples of Impressive Museum Architecture
Al Jazeera Network Studio Building / Veech X Veech
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Architects: Veech X Veech
- Area: 1650 m²
- Year: 2016
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Professionals: Gulf Contracting Company, KEO International, MCI Studio Hamburg, Northcroft, Ove Arup & Partners
Stanford Apple Store / Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
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Architects: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
- Year: 2017
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Manufacturers: Bellapart, Frener&Reifer, PIETRA SERENA, Whisperwalls
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Professionals: WSP Group, ISP Design, BKF Engineers, Pepper Construction, Umerani Associates
The Studio / Squire and Partners
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Architects: Squire and Partners
- Area: 1544 m²
- Year: 2017
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Manufacturers: Kingspan Insulated Panels, Banker Wire, iGuzzini, Flux Lighting, LTS, +2
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Professionals: Akera Engineers, Exigere, GDM Partnership, Rougemont Property Consultants
John Pawson and Hiroshi Senju Selected as Recipients of the 2017 Isamu Noguchi Award
The Noguchi Museum has selected architect John Pawson and painter Hiroshi Senju as the recipients of the 2017 Isamu Noguchi Award. Now in its fourth year, the annual award was established to honor individuals who “share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and commitment to East/West cultural exchange.”
The award is presented each year to one architect and one artist or designer, honoring the multi-faceted career of artist/architect Isamu Noguchi. Previous winners of the award have included Tadao Ando and Elyn Zimmerman in 2016; architect Yoshio Taniguchi and industrial designer Jasper Morrison (2015); and winners of the inaugural award, Norman Foster and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto (2014).
Oxfordshire Residence / Richard Meier & Partners
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Architects: Richard Meier & Partners
- Area: 837 m²
- Year: 2016
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Professionals: CBG Consultants, Sizebreed Construction, Tom Stuart-Smith Ltd, Price & Myers
5 Zaha Hadid Buildings Seen From Above
This week marks the first anniversary of the death of Zaha Hadid, the most successful and influential female architect in the architectural discipline. Born in Baghdad (Iraq) in 1950, Hadid became the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize in 2004, and twelve years later received the gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Hadid's untimely death left a fascinating and inspiring legacy. Meanwhile her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, continues to work on nearly a hundred projects worldwide. To remember her legacy, Spanish company Deimos Imaging has shared a series of photographs focusing on Hadid's work in five countries.
The images were captured by the Deimos-2 satellite, which was launched in 2014 and designed for very high-resolution Earth observation applications, providing multispectral images of just 75 centimeters per pixel. Hadid's incredible works take on a new dimension when you contemplate their proportions from the sky—or rather, from a satellite.
Fluid Luminosity: The Architectural Lighting of Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid's projects are remarkable not only for her innovative way of handling tangible materials but also for her imagination regarding the medium of light. Her theories of fragmentation and fluidity are now well-known design techniques which enabled her form-finding. However, her advances in using light to render her architecture have often been neglected—even though they became an essential element in revealing and interpreting her architecture. The three-decade transition from minimal light lines at her early Vitra Fire Station to the world's tallest atrium at the Leeza SOHO skyscraper, which collects an abundance of daylight, shows the remarkable development of Zaha Hadid’s luminous legacy.
Ogden Centre / Studio Libeskind
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Architects: Studio Libeskind
- Area: 2478 m²
- Year: 2017
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Manufacturers: Vectorworks
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Professionals: Arup
Student Accommodation at King's Cross / Stanton Williams
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Architects: Stanton Williams
- Year: 2016
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Manufacturers: Caledonian, Engels Baksteen, Shadbolt, Wessex
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Professionals: Arup, Davis Langdon, Grontmij, AKT II, Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture
14 Shades of Red: Projects to Fall in Love With on Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day!
We've affectionately rounded up 14 projects that use the power of the color most associated to love, passion, joy, sexuality and intensity: red
ArchDaily's 2017 Building of the Year Awards are Now Open for Nominations
2016 was a defining year for ArchDaily. The change and uncertainty around the globe which emerged during the past year allowed us to double down on our mission to provide information, knowledge, and tools to architects, leveling the access to architectural knowledge and enabling a more diverse, equitable profession. As part of this, we now have a renewed focus on data-driven decisions and crowdsourcing architecture's understanding of its own work. The flagship of this crowdsourcing effort has always been our annual Building of the Year awards.
Now, for the 8th consecutive year, we are tasking our readers with the responsibility of recognizing and rewarding the projects that are making an impact in the profession, with ArchDaily's 2017 Building of the Year Awards. By voting, you are part of an unbiased, distributed network of jurors and peers that has elevated the most relevant projects over the past seven years. Over the next two weeks, your collective intelligence will filter over 3,000 projects down to just 16 stand-outs—the best in each category on ArchDaily.
This is your chance to reward the architecture you love by nominating your favorite for the 2017 Building of the Year Awards!
Full rules after the break.
The Word – National Centre for the Written Word / FaulknerBrowns Architects
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Architects: FaulknerBrowns Architects
- Area: 4115 m²
- Year: 2016
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Manufacturers: Atelje Lyktan, Bespoke Concrete, Classic Masonry, James & Taylor, Teams roofing, +1
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Professionals: Bowmer & Kirkland, Desco, Curtins Consulting
Sky Central / AL_A + PLP Architecture + HASSELL
The Point / Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt
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Architects: Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt
- Area: 410 m²
- Year: 2016
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Manufacturers: Parklex Prodema, Desso, Don Construction Products, Ideal Standard, Magnet, +4
Faith & Form's 2016 Religious Architecture Awards Recognize 28 Projects from Around the Globe
Each year, Faith & Form magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA) reward the best religious architecture, design and art for religious spaces. In their 2016 awards, the jury recognized 28 projects across 10 categories, with almost half of the winners designed for sites outside of North America. Aside from this diversity of location, another trend in the awards was a tendency toward material honesty and simplicity. "Several jurors were impressed with how designers used an economy of means with simple, elegant materials to meet the needs of congregations," said Michael J Crosbie, editor-in-chief of Faith & Form, adding that "a reverence for natural materials was seen in many submissions, and in winning projects." Read on to see all 28 winners.
Hangzhou AN Interior's Black Cant System Named World's Best Interior of 2016
Hangzhou AN Interior Design's design for the retail brand Heike has been named the world's best interior of 2016. Announced at the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors in Berlin, which took place alongside the World Architecture Festival, the winner of the prize was selected from among 9 category winners, which in turn were picked out of a shortlist totaling 62 projects. The Black Cant System was also the winner of the retail category.
Described by the designers as a "glum interior" with a "futuristic melancholy atmosphere" for the retail brand, the centerpiece of the design is a large, dark wedge housing many of the store's functional components such as fitting rooms and staircases.
Read on for more images of, and for the full list of category winners.
Frederiksbjerg School / Henning Larsen Architects + GPP Architects
- Area: 15000 m²
- Year: 2016
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Manufacturers: Gamle Mursten, Henning Larsen Design, Rose Eken, Unisport
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Professionals: Grethe Sørensen, Hoffmann, Møller & Grønborg, Niras