Museums began in ancient times as Temples, dedicated to the muses, where the privileged went to be amused, to witness beauty, and to learn. After the Renaissance museums went public with palatial structures where the idea of the gallery arose, a space to display paintings and sculpture. Later, museums became centers of education, researching, collecting, and actively provoking thought and the exchange of ideas. By presenting the highest achievements of culture, museums became a stabilizing and regenerative force, crusading for quality and excellence. The role of the modern museum is both aesthetic and didactic, both Temple and Forum.

The design of contemporary museum can be characterized by two polar approaches. On the one-hand buildings which aim to be works of art in themselves, independent sculptural objects as signatures of their architects. The new Rome Museum is the most extreme example, where the building opened empty, without any art to compromise its architecture. On the opposite end of the spectrum are museums as containers, as beautiful jewel boxes, treasure chests whose sole purpose is to be filled with art, like the Tampa Museum.

Located at the convergence of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio rivers, the expansion of the River Heritage Museum will be a pivotal project in the re-development of Paducah’s historic riverfront arts community. The 32,000 sf expansion is designed to be constructed in 3 phases over the next 4 years.

Designed by architect Zaha Hadid (winner of the international competition in 1999), the MAXXI is located in the Flaminio quarter of Rome, in the area of the former Montello military barracks.

The MAXXI_Museum of 21st Century Arts is a foundation created by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (Minister Sandro Bondi). The president is Pio Baldi.


The complex houses two institutions: MAXXI Arte (Director Anna Mattirolo) and MAXXI Architecture (Director Margherita Guccione), aiming to promote art and architecture through collection, conservation, study and exhibition of contemporary works.

As of today, over 300 works are part of the MAXXI Art collection, including those of Boetti, Clemente, Kapoor, Kentridge, Merz, Penone, Pintaldi, Richter, Warhol and many others. MAXXI Architecture includes the files of the designs of Carlo Scarpa, Aldo Rossi, Pierluigi Nervi and others, as well as the projects of contemporary authors such as Toyo Ito, Italo Rota and Giancarlo De Carlo, and photography collections of the projects Italian Atlas and Author’s Site.

Rafael Viñoly Architects has designed the new East Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Ohio, which opened to the public on June 27, 2009. Its completion marks the opening of the first of three planned wings.


Viñoly’s design for the new East Wing forms part of an impressive seven year expansion and renovation project. The 139,200 square foot East Wing connects CMA’s original 1916 Beaux-Arts building and the 1971 addition by Marcel Breuer, creating spectacular new spaces for the presentation and conservation of one of the leading encyclopaedic art collections in the United States.

Photographs courtesy of Brad Feinknopf

Cities get identified by their landmarks. The centre of Davenport, suffers from many of the problems endemic to a number of American cities. Over the years the area has witnessed the departure of much of its residential and business community, leaving downtown Davenport with little of the vibrancy normally associated with urban life.

The implementation of this new home for the Figge Art Museum, formerly the Davenport Museum of Art, in downtown Davenport, has been a major catalyst in the urban revitalization of a historic city, which is located on the banks of the Mississippi River on Iowa’s eastern border and is the largest of the Quad Cities, that also comprises Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois.

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The Baltic Sea Comes To Life at Ozeaneum, as Behnisch Architekten Completes the Oceanographic Museum.

The weather-beaten city of Stralsund on the Baltic Sea is humming with excitement, thanks to the addition of Ozeaneum, the new German Oceanographic Museum designed by Behnisch Architekten. The well-known firm works out of offices in Stuttgart, Germany, as well as both Los Angeles and Boston in the U.S.

This aquarium is built right along the city’s harbor promenade surrounded by historic warehouses. It’s an open structure flooded from all sides by people and light, similar to the way stones in the sea near the water’s edge are flooded by the surrounding water.