CAMOC conference, ICOM Shanghai: abstract of paper in English and Chinese

link to CAMOC

City and museum renovation


Since the Guggenheim in Bilbao transformed the whole city, there has not been another museum project on so great a scale. However, either because of the museums’ role in a city’s economic system, or because of the need to fulfill a government’s multiple objectives, museum renovation projects of various scales have been highly popular over the last 10 to 15 years.

However, for museums with long histories and located in old cities, museum renovation projects can often be highly challenging as the buildings themselves are historical sites or of particular significance, and the urban landscape cannot be changed easily.

Starting from this point, my research explores three museum renovation projects that have greatly transformed the museum space from inside: the recently renovated Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the British Museum’s Great Court project, and the Museum of Modern Art’s renovation project in New York.

These three highly successful projects did not change their museums’ external appearance, nor did they intervene in the urban landscape. I would like to discuss how the projects transformed the museum space and enhanced the visitor experience, while preserving the museum building’s connection with the city landscape, and the city’s history. These would be good examples for fast-developing countries which sometimes have the tendency to demolish everything old and build anew from scratch.


城市与博物馆更新
自从古根汉毕尔包分馆的兴建改变了整个城市之後，尚未有第二个规模如此庞大的博物馆兴建计画出现。然而，过去的十至十五年以来，或是为了要让博物馆成为刺激城市经济活动的一部份、或是为了要符合政府对於博物馆多功能目标的期望，各式各样的博物馆的更新计画显然已蔚为风潮。

同时，对於历史悠久、且位於旧城市中的博物馆，进行博物馆更新计画经常是充满挑战性的：一方面是因为博物馆建筑本身就是古迹、或是有特殊的意义；另一方面是因为既有的城市景观无法轻易变更。本次研究以此为出发点，探讨三个使博物馆内部空间大为改观的更新案例，这三个计画包括新近完成更新的牛津的艾许莫林博物馆、大英博物馆的大中庭计画、以及纽约现代美术馆的更新计画。

这三个非常成功的博物馆更新案例并没有大幅度改变博物馆的外观，也没有改变城市景观。本次研究讨论这三个案例如何转变博物馆的空间、增进观众叁观经验，同时如何保留博物馆建筑和城市景观的关系。期望本研究的讨论，对於快速发展的国家倾向将现存建筑物拆除、建造全新博物馆的方式，提供另外一种处理方式。