The future of design in museum spaces: placemaking for communities

introduction

Design is an integral part of the visitor experience, and as it becomes incorporated better, museums become better for the community. The International Council of Museums defines a museum as:

“a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates, and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment.”

Museums serve the public first. In the article From Being about Something to Being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum, Stephen Weil, writer for Daedalus, quotes Kenneth Hudson as saying:

“…the most fundamental change that has affected museums during the [past] half-century…is the now almost universal conviction that they exist in order to serve the public. The old-style museum felt itself under no such obligation. It existed, it had a building, it had collections and a staff to look after them. It was reasonably adequately finaced, and its visitors, usually not numerous, came to look, to wonder and to admire what was set before them. They were in no sense partners in the enterprise. The museum’s prime responsibility was to its collections, not its visitors.”

The future of museums is an architecture that serves the community. In all aspects of museums, using design can help to strategize new ways to interact with visitors, to anticipate their needs, and use placemaking to engage the public further. The future of museums will include total design. It will respect the individual and the community. The museum of the future addresses the current definition of a museum and uses design to propagate space that furthers the ideas of community and learning.

form Making and Vernacular

One of the first ways we experience a museum is its exterior. The exterior becomes a face for the museum, as well as a constant billboard asking for attention. In the past, the 'Bilbao Effect' could heavily influence museums' exterior conditions. The 'Bilbao Effect' started in Bilbao, Spain, by the architect Frank Gehry. The port town of Bilbao wanted a way to increase tourism and boost their economy, and the Guggenheim Bilbao was born. The iconic form of the new museum made it a landmark and unmissable experience for tourists, which accomplished the city's original goals. Other cities followed suit, hiring famous designers to give their cities a shiny, new object to pull in crowds. Rebecca Greenwald, a writer for Metropolis Magazine, published the article Adjaye, Chipperfield, Heatherwick, Levete, and Renfro on the 21st Century Museum. The future of museum design will continue to be affected by the 'Bilbao Effect,' but architects have also started to address 'place-making' rather than 'space-making.' Some of the architects featured remark that attitude has been "you're not a proper city unless you've built your contemporary art museum." Now, architecture is "moving away from the building as an effect and the flash and circumstance of it." Susan MacLeod, museum studies professor at the University of Leicester, writes in her book Reshaping Museum Space:

“developing countries will make great sacrifices in order to have museums, which are needed both to reinforce and confirm a sense of national identity and to give status within the world community. To have no museums, in today’s circumstances, is to admit that one is below the minimum level of civilization required of a modern states.”

If there is a demand for museums, it is the designer's job to understand how we can design a museum for the future. The museum of the future is an architecture that belongs to the community. The 'Bilbao Effect' can dictate the possibility for an Avante Garde architecture, but this does not constitute siteless architecture. A good architecture responds to the location: physical site, people, and history.

layout and circulation

The interior layout of museums can vastly determine how a user understands space. Layout determines circulation, the order and hierarchy of spaces, and the experiential qualities. The types of experiences can range from more ordered to more explorative. An example of a more ordered experience would be the Uffizi gallery located in Florence, Italy. The long hallways connect all of the gallery spaces making sure the user has a higher chance of seeing all of the work. This highly prescribed route is a very different experience than a user would have at a museum like the east wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. NGADC has a massive central atrium with the galleries located in the corners of the building. Users move freely throughout the space and can view the galleries in any order. While there are pros and cons to both types of layouts, the most critical part of the layout is that it can effectively communicate information to the user. Elissa Frankle, a user experience expert, gave a presentation at the 2017 Information Architecture Summit on how museums need to address the needs of their users better. To start, Frankle recounts a tale of visiting a museum and immediately feeling frustrated because she cannot locate the bathroom. Looking at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Frankle decided to add-on categories to reflect recent trends of improved human rights and tailor the categories for how museums engage visitors. At the bottom of the pyramid lies accessibility and safety. Users must feel wanted in the space to use it. The second tier of the pyramid addresses physiological needs. If the user cannot physical navigate the space, then the user cannot properly experience the space. The third tier looks at basic psychological needs. Museums should use design as a means to facilitate learning and respect. The museum of the future uses the layout as a way to design an experience for its users. It uses hierarchy to denote entrance and welcome users- it does not pay attention to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or politics- it merely invites them in. The museum of the future designs for humans and their needs. Instead of relying on signage for wayfinding, the architecture guides users and denotes areas of importance. Spaces can flow sequentially, and utilities become pockets of space in significant areas of circulation. Museums should not wait for people to seek out necessities like restrooms or accessible routes of circulation. Instead, museum architecture should anticipate needs and allow the community to feel understood in the space. Accessibility especially is not being used as a design tool currently. Architecture that forces disabled users to retreat into utilitarian space to navigate is disrespectful. Accessibility can be integrated into the design seamlessly without singling out users by increasing clearance widths and making sure that design elements like platforms do not become barriers.

grand halls and community spaces

The great hall of a museum is not a new archetype; it has been around for a long time. The difference is now we are designing for more than an entrance. In recent years the shift towards museums as community spaces has caused museum architecture to shift with it. Museums have become more accessible spaces that no longer cater only to the rich. The grand halls that once functioned as a moment of arrival and grandeur now need to perform as more. Famed architectural theorist Bernard Tschumi writes in his articles The Violence of Architecture about how users impact the architecture around them. Architecture can never fully anticipate how a user will use space, which Tschumi refers to as users enacting violence on architecture. This violence becomes the argument for unprogrammed space. As more types of users encounter museums, they will all use it in different ways leading to an increase in the amount of unprogrammed space or grand hall reimagined. But why the need for all of this public space? What makes museums the right place for this to happen? Part of the proposed 2019 ICOM Definition of Museum is "Museums are democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the past and futures." If museums want to claim that their purpose is to better the community, then the community deserves a space where expression is encouraged and identity is accepted. In a world that is currently undergoing plenty of change, whether that be political, cultural, environmental, or what have you, it is now more vital than ever that the people have an inclusive space to speak freely. So how does this translate into design? A grand hall can still be grand; the vernacular does not have to change. The democratization of design is all about making sure that everyone has equal access to good architecture. A fantastic example of this is the central courtyard that connects The National Portrait Gallery and The American Art Museum. Combining natural elements like plants, water, and light, open space and seating, and an awe-inspiring roof led to a space that has become a very popular place to escape the street. As part of the Smithsonian, both museums are free, allowing visitors to migrate between the public courtyard and the galleries easily. Architectural elements can also help facilitate the space. The location of an information desk can be imperative to a museum experience. The presence of an authoritative figure can help welcome and inform guests of what they are encountering. As learned on one of the trips to McClung Museum, visitor services need to be located front and center in order to intercept guests and assist them. More than that, visitor services can be incorporated into the design. If the furniture prevents the attendant from interacting with visitors, then it is useless. After this interaction, visitors should be able to interact with each other. The open space promotes a social atmosphere that allows guests to self-organize or keep to themselves. The transition into the gallery space is next. From here, the museum should use architecture to extend an invitation to investigate the space further. Circulation and entryways can denote the beginning of a new space that helps the visitors prepare for a new type of space. The museum of the future understands its role as a part of the community. By using a more unassuming architecture than we have in the past, museums can better serve its people. A more community-focused architecture does not make the collections and exhibits less important. Instead, this means that museums can meet people at a middle point and allow them to feel more accepted in space and prepare them for a holistic learning experience.

exhibit spaces

How we design exhibits can have a significant impact on how visitors experience the content. Working with a curator, the designer works to create a narrative using the selected objects, information displays, and interactives. In the past, there have been issues with an exhibit's design as it relates to misconstruing narrative and appropriating culture. A year after the Museum of the American Indian opened, NPR interviewed Dr. Edward Rothstein, a critic for the New York Times, about his opinions of the exhibits as part of their show All Things Considered. Rothstein strongly disagreed with how the exhibit's design because it displayed tribal life as homogenous rather than showing the differences between the different tribes. In the Smithsonian's guide Making Exhibitions, the "Design Development" section discusses the decisions made on how the museum will present the collection. One critical factor in this is whose "voice" is telling the story. In the case of the Museum of the American Indian, the "voice" appears as a non-native generalization tinged with ignorance even though they received assistance from tribes. Accessibility within exhibits is another essential design element that needs addressing. If an individual is not able to access the museum, then the museum is failing members of the community. Andrew Miller, who uses a wheelchair, was interviewed by Claire Voon as part of the Artsy article Museums Are Finally Taking Accessibility for Visitors with Disabilities Seriously. Many times when Miller is using gallery spaces, he cannot gain the same experience as other visitors because the exhibit design is only accessible to non-disabled visitors. As discussed at McClung Museum, the Science in Motion exhibit used interactives that tried to be inclusive, like the zoopraxiscope that was short enough to be used by kids and users in wheelchairs. When full height adults used the interactive, they had to bend down, which as non-disabled humans, was no problem. The museum of the future will continue to integrate all kinds of visitors and tell their stories the right way. As part of the design process, we will include more voices to create a more inclusive exhibit. As an agent of community, museums need to provide a narrative that everyone is deserving of representation.

conclusion

As we start designing the museums of the future it is imperative that we continue to remember who museums serve: the community. Museums have the power to make communities stronger and it is imperative that design reflects that. We as designers have the power and the responsibility to design for a better future that is more inclusive in all aspects. Starting with the exterior, we can design in a way that understands the community rather than only designing for marketing appeal. With the interior space, we can design in a way that makes all routes of circulation accessible without creating out-of-the-way routes for those with disabilities. Gathering spaces in museums should now be designed with the intention of universal acceptance of people, opinions, and activities. Exhibits can be designed with corrected narratives and without barriers that prevent all from being a part of the experience. As we strive to design the museum of the future, it is imperative that we reflect on the communities that will endlessly shape and impact our spaces. With the intent of designing for them we can create a stronger museum that promises to educate, grow, and accept.