Imagining the Future Museum:
21 Dialogues with Architects
by András Szántó

Capturing the mindset of a generation of museum architects at a moment of accelerated change.

About the Book

READ THE PRESS RELEASE
What will the art museum look and feel like in five, ten, fifty years? In his previous book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues (2020), New York-based cultural strategist András Szántó interviewed a group of international museum directors, who espoused an expanding set of goals and functions for art museums. Now, in his follow-up volume, Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, Szántó engages in conversations with visionary architects worldwide about what sort of “hardware” will be required for the art institution of tomorrow. 

21 dialogues with 25 architects who have designed museums all over the world.

What emerges from the 21 dialogues—all conducted between February and September, 2022—is a composite portrait of a generation of architects working to make the museum more flexible, porous, human-centered, culturally responsive, digitally amplified, and environmentally responsible.
Among Szántó’s conversation partners are architects already widely acclaimed for the institutions they’ve built. But the majority of the 21 respondents are emerging forces in the world of museum design – their median age is around 50 – with many years of museum-making ahead of them. The book includes an original sketch by each of the architects and photographs of selected projects by the featured studios.
New Cities & Climates
KUNLÉ ADEYEMI

NLÉ, Amsterdam & Lagos

The New Public Room
DAVID ADJAYE

Adjaye Associates, London, New York City, Accra

Freedom Platform
PAULA ZASNICOFF CARDOSO & CARLOS ALBERTO MACIEL

Arquitetos Associados, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Spectacle or Sanctuary
DAVID
CHIPPERFIELD

David Chipperfield Architects, London, Berlin, Milan, Shanghai

Civic Space
MINSUK CHO

Mass Studies, Seoul

Architect as Artist
ELIZABETH
DILLER

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York City

Porosity
FRIDA ESCOBEDO

Frida Escobedo, Mexico City

Green Space
SOU FUJIMOTO

Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo

Archaeology of the Future
LINA GHOTMEH

Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, Paris

Museum as Exhibition
BJARKE INGELS

BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen, New York City, London, Barcelona, Shenzhen

The Anthropocene Museum
KABAGE KARANJA & STELLA MUTEGI

Cave_bureau, Nairobi

The Light Institution
LI HU & HUANG WENJING

OPEN, Beijing

Temporality
JING LIU &
FLORIAN IDENBURG

SO – IL, New York City

Surreality
MA YANSONG

MAD Architects, Beijing, Jiaxing, Los Angeles, Rome

The New Old
WINY MAAS

MVRDV, Rotterdam, Shanghai, Paris, Berlin

Nature & Play
ROTH —
EDUARDO NEIRA

Roth Architecture, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Context Is Everything
STEPHAN SCHÜTZ

gmp – von Gerkan, Marg, and Partners Architects, Hamburg, Berlin, Aachen, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hanoi

Placemaking
KERSTIN THOMPSON

Kerstin Thompson Architects, Melbourne

The Rural Museum
XU TIANTIAN

DnA Design and Architecture, Beijing

Sites of Empathy
KULAPAT YANTRASAST

WHY Architecture, Los Angeles and New York City

Digital Spaces
LIAM YOUNG

Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles


Events
ROTTERDAM – Het Nieuwe Instituut, February 11
NEW YORK – Brooklyn Museum, February 15
ASPEN – Aspen Art Museum, February 18
VENICE – Architecture Biennale, May 19 
Please check back for details and other events.


Press


What will museums of the future be like? Three key takeaways from a new book

In his 2020 book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues, the cultural strategist András Szántó spoke to museum directors around the world and discovered that institutions were “turning more democratic, community-focused, equity minded, culturally inclusive, and experiential, among other pivots”. For his latest book, Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, Szántó spoke with David Chipperfield, Frida Escobedo and David Adjaye, among others, to find out “how the momentous changes of our era” are shaping museum architecture. Below he outlines three key takeaways. Read More call_made

How will museums look and feel in 5, 10 or 50 years’ time? 

In his latest book, Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, András Szántó talks to visionary architects worldwide, including some closely linked to Rotterdam and the Netherlands: Winy Maas (MVRDV), Ma Yansong (MAD Architects) and Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ). At an in-person panel on February 2nd, Szántó will talk to these leading practitioners – alongside Wim Pijbes, director of Stichting Droom en Daad – to discuss their recent and forthcoming projects in the Netherlands and their implications for the future of museums globally.  Read More call_made

New book | Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects

What will the art museum look and feel like in five, ten, fifty years? In Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, András Szántó engages in conversations with visionary architects worldwide about what sort of “hardware” will be required for the art institution of tomorrow. Included are dialogues with: Kunlé Adeyemi, David Adjaye, Paula Zasnicoff Cardoso & Carlos Alberto Maciel, David Chipperfield, Minsuk Cho, Elizabeth Diller  Frida Escobedo, Sou Fujimoto, Lina Ghotmeh, Bjarke Ingels, Kabage Karanja & Stella Mutegi, Li Hu & Huang Wenjing, Jing Liu & Florian Idenburg, Yansong Ma, Winy Maas, Roth — Eduardo Neira, Stephan Schütz, Kerstin Thompson, Xu Tiantian, Kulapat Yantrasast, Liam Young. The book is a sequel to The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues (2020).  Read More call_made

The Museum System Upgrade: A Q&A with András Szántó

András Szántó spoke with Adam Rozan for the American Alliance of Museums about his book The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues (2020) and its newly released sequel Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects (2022). Read More call_made

‘A Balance Between Wonder and Humility’: 25 Leading Architects Imagine How Future Museums Will Look in a Post-Starchitecture World

“But a museum that runs on new software will need new hardware. Which is why I spent the spring and summer of 2022 talking with architects from around the world.” Read an excerpt from Andras Szanto new book Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues With Architects on Artnet News. Read More call_made

Architecture Conversation: Hans Ulrich Obrist & András Szántó

Art museums are changing rapidly in response to accelerated cultural, political, and technological shifts in our society. A new kind of museum is emerging—more open, democratic, and accessible. This demands a new approach to museum architecture as well. Join the Aspen Art Museum on February 19 for a conversation with Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and New York–based author and cultural strategy consultant András Szántó, whose latest book Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, surveys the emerging architectural landscape through dialogues with leading figures in the field. Read More call_made

Aspen Art Museum presents talk on future of museums

What is the future of museums in our global society? That is the question András Szántó and Hans Ulrich Obrist will discuss on the rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum at 4 p.m. on Sunday. They will reflect on how today’s generation of architects is working to re-invent the art museum. Szántó’s book, “Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects,” is a follow up to his 2021 book, “The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues,” in which he interviewed 28 of the world’s leading museum directors about the potential of art museums as “spaces for change and democracy.”   Read More call_made

“Just as a generation of museum leaders began to open the museum up to a larger audience, a generation of architects started to move beyond look-at-me statements and to imagine more welcoming and accessible museums, ones that are intentionally rooted in their communities and urban or natural surroundings.”

–András Szántó


PRESS CONTACTS
Jennifer Berndt, Hatje Cantz
Tel. +49 30 346 46 78-23
presse@hatjecantz.de
András Szántó Press
info@andrasszanto.com
András Szántó Press
info@andrasszanto.com

Distribution partners: D.A.P. (United States) and Thames & Hudson (Worldwide).
U.S. store book order inquiries Lydia McOscar lmcoscar@dapinc.com
Images courtesy of the architects’ studios available here, find image captions here.