Image via Complex Original
Going to museums does not always have to be about going to see what's on the inside. These museums not only feature good art on the inside, but boast outstanding architecture that both distinguish the buildings from immediate surroundings and embrace its context and place.
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Ordos Art & City Museum
Ordos Art & City Museum
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Architect: MAD Architects
Year Completed: 2011
This amorphous structure was built on what used to be part of an empty portion of the Gobi desert, in the new city center of Ordos. It features a windowless metal facade, with skylights that allow for natural light to blend borders between the structure and its surroundings.
Crystal Bridges Museum
Crystal Bridges Museum
Location: Bentonville, Arkansas
Architect: Safdie Architects
Year Completed: 2011
The Crystal Bridges Museum consists of two suspended cable-and-wood buildings located in a ravine. The buildings, made from materials derived from the region—wood, fieldstone and limestone aggreage, create two ponds and act as dams as well as bridges.
Titanic Belfast
Titanic Belfast
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Architect: Todd Architects (Lead Consultant/Architect), CivicArts (Concept Design Architects)
Year Completed: 2012
Titanic Belfast is the world's largest Titanic-themed exhibition. Built as part of Northern Ireland's largest tourism project, its galleries tell everything from who was aboard the ship to how it was built.
Natural History Museum of Utah
Natural History Museum of Utah
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Architect: Ennead Architects
Year Completed: 2011
The Natural History Museum of Utah aims to bring humans closer to nature through science, education, and culture. The building transforms the shapes of its surrounding land, while its materials are inspired by the region's natural landscape of rock, soil, minerals, and vegetation.
Clyfford Still Museum
Clyfford Still Museum
Location: Denver, Colorado
Architect: Allied Works Architecture
Year Completed: 2011
The Clyfford Still Museum embraces nature amidst the urban context of Denver, Co. The museum facade, consisting of random patterns of vertical lines of concrete, becomes visible as you walk through a grove of trees. The Denver sunlight allows for the building's surface to change its look throughout the day.
Lanyang Museum
Lanyang Museum
Location: Yilan County, Taiwan
Architect: Kris Yao - Artech Architects
Year Completed:2010
The granite rock-themed Lanyang Museum aims to show the culture and landscape of its city. Located next to a once prosperous, but now unused harbor, the museum reflects Lanyang's maritime history. An outdoor exhibition introduces the area's wetland ecology.
The National World War II Museum
The National World War II Museum
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Architect: Voorsanger Architects PC
Year Completed: Ongoing
The National World War II Museum is located in New Orleans, where a key landing craft used in the great war was built. The museum will feature multiple interpretive and interactive exhibits, and will be completed throughout a series of phases in future years. Currently Phase I has been completed and includes the 4-D theater, performance hall, executive office, retail, and restaurant spaces.
The Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Architect: Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
Year Completed: 2012
The new Barnes Foundation building, which opened in May 2012, not only includes multiple galleries but also a garden and classrooms. The structure is eco-friendly, built using recycled and reclaimed materials, and equipped with a landscape irrigation system that collects and reuses rainwater.
Maritime Xperiential Museum
Maritime Xperiential Museum
Location: Singapore
Architect: Michael Graves & Associates
Year Completed: 2012
The Maritime Xperiential Museum is located next to the water...fitting, since its exhibitions are also related to the water. Focusing on the maritime Silk Route, of which Singapore was an important part, the museum's design is inspired by the sea vessels that propelled the silk industry.
Enzo Ferrari Museum
Enzo Ferrari Museum
Location: Modena, Italy
Architect: Jan Kaplický
Year Completed: 2012
Ferrari's hometown, Modena, Italy, initiated this project to honor the city's most celebrated resident. A vaulted metal spaceframe and glass surfaces form the structure, making the building technically advanced and also reminding us of Enzo Ferrari's cars. Following the original architect Kaplický’s death in early 2009, Andrea Morgante of Shiro Studio led the completion of the project.
Mecenat Art Museum
Mecenat Art Museum
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
Architect: naf architect & design
Year Completed: 2010
This privately funded and owned museum is dedicated to exhibiting the works of a single artist, Kakudo Goami. To highlight Goami's work, the museum building makes use of natural light and wind, while the overall shape draws from concepts of origami—folding a single sheet of paper to create multiple layers and corners.
National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Architect(s): Dok Architecten: Liesbeth van der Pol, Jan Jaap Roeten, Sonja Müller, Ellen Wolse, Christina Patz, Mirthe Kooy, Ieke Koning
Year Completed: 2011
The Maritime Warehouse in Amsterdam has been renovated to make better use of its inner courtyard area and host cultural events throughout the year. The courtyard is covered by a full glass ceiling with geometric shapes, and serves as the central area around which to base museum navigation.
Sogn & Fjordane Art Museum
Sogn & Fjordane Art Museum
Location: Førde, Norway
Architect: C.F. Møller Architects
Year Completed: 2012
Located in a small Norwegian town surrounded by mountains and near Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on the European mainland, the Sogn & Fjordane Art Museum is a contemporary addition to the town's visual scheme—geometric shapes and illuminated lines gives the structure a glacial look to fit right in amongst the landscape.
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
Location: Lansing, Michigan
Architect: Zaha Hadid
Year Completed: 2012
This museum is to open next month on the north campus at Michigan State University. The stainless steel exterior almost guarantees that this will be the best looking (or at least most noticeable) building on campus, given the surrounding Collegiate Gothic structures.
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Architect: Farshid Moussavi
Year Completed: 2012
The newly built home of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland has four stories, six sides, and is covered with mirrors. Featuring a full atrium, the ceiling and walls of the structure are painted blue, giving the museum an extra flare.
