Directors and designers of museums are rethinking the end-use of the typology. Are they hallowed halls of education and spiritual replenishment, like old-fashioned libraries and churches, to which the visitor makes a pilgrimage" Or are they something else altogether now"
Pavillon pour la paix, Musée des beaux arts de Montréal. Photo by Oliver Blouin
For the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the design consortium ?of Atelier TAG and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, the purpose is emphatically shifting towards that socially minded imperative. The 2013 competition brief for a new fifth pavilion to its Sherbrooke Street building itself called for a redefinition of the museum for the 21st century, recalls Katsuhiro Yamazaki, who with Manon Asselin of Atelier TAG, led the design team. ?It was more about how museums contribute to society, instead of mere contemplation and consumption of artwork,? he says. ?We asked ourselves: How does it serve the community and visitors" Does it compete with theatres and other entertainment venues" Or does it hold its own place"? The Bishop Street entrance showcases the pavilion’s restrained material palette. Photo by Pawel Karwowski.
For the museum?s newly completed Michal and Renata Hornstein ?Pavilion for Peace, the answer, in this critic?s mind, is all of the above. The design approach dovetails with the prevailing worldwide ethos ?of repositioning the museum concept as something more accessible and engaging than the fust...