ABSTRACT

Museums and Design for Creative Lives questions what we sacrifice when we allow economic imperatives to shape public museums, whilst also considering the implications of these new museum realities. It also asks: how might we instead design for creative lives?

Drawing together 28 case studies of museum design spanning 70 years, the book explores the spatial and social forms that comprise these successful examples, as well as the design methodologies through which they were produced. Re-activating a well-trodden history of progressive museum design and raising awareness of the involvement of the built forms in how we feel, think and act, MacLeod provides strategies and methods to actively counter the economisation of museums and a call to museum makers to work beyond the economic and advance this deeply human history of museum making.

Museums and Design for Creative Lives will be of great interest to academics and students in museum studies, gallery studies, heritage studies, arts management, communication and architecture and design departments, as well as those interested in understanding more about design as a resource in museums. The book provides a valuable resource for museum leaders and practitioners.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

part 1|54 pages

Museums and design for creative lives

part 2|234 pages

Projects

chapter Chapter 4|6 pages

Battersea Arts Centre, London, UK, 2007–

chapter Chapter 5|8 pages

Blue House, Wanchai, Hong Kong, 2017

chapter Chapter 6|8 pages

Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, USA, 1962–79

chapter Chapter 7|8 pages

Derby Silk Mill Museum of Making, Derby, UK, 2020

chapter Chapter 8|6 pages

District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa, 1994–

chapter Chapter 9|8 pages

Exile, Kingston Lacy, UK, 2017

chapter Chapter 10|8 pages

Exploratorium, San Francisco, USA, 1969

chapter Chapter 11|8 pages

Festival of Britain, London, UK, 1951

chapter Chapter 12|6 pages

Fun Palace, London, UK, 1960–75

chapter Chapter 14|6 pages

Guggenheim Helsinki, Finland, 2013–16

chapter Chapter 15|12 pages

HumanKind, Calke Abbey, UK, 2019–20

chapter Chapter 16|8 pages

Jubilee Arts, The Bus Project, UK, 1978–84

chapter Chapter 18|8 pages

Launchpad, Science Museum, London, UK, 1986

chapter Chapter 20|8 pages

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, 1958

chapter Chapter 21|8 pages

Museo Casa de la Memoria Medellín, Colombia, 2012–

chapter Chapter 23|8 pages

Museum at the Gateway Arch, St. Louis, USA, 2018

chapter Chapter 25|10 pages

Parque Explora, Medellín, Colombia, 2008–

chapter Chapter 27|12 pages

SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil, 1982–