Several museums around the world stand out for their unusual and innovative architecture, offering visitors not only a unique cultural experience but also an opportunity to appreciate the artistry of the buildings themselves. Here are some of the most unusual museums in the world, known for their distinctive architecture:
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Spain): The museum building was designed by American-Canadian architect Frank Gehry and was opened to the public on October 18, 1997. The museum was opened by Juan Carlos I. The building was immediately recognized as one of the most spectacular deconstructivist buildings in the world. Architect Philip Johnson called it "the greatest building of our time."
Located on the waterfront, the building embodies the abstract idea of a futuristic ship, perhaps for interplanetary travel. It is also compared to a bird, an airplane, an artichoke and a budding rose.
The central atrium, 55 meters high, resembles a giant metal flower, from which the petals of the curving flowing extended volumes radiate, in which the enfilades of exhibition halls for various expositions are located.
Like most of Gehry's works, the structure consists of soft contours. Frank Gehry claimed in an interview that "the randomness of the bends is designed to capture light." When designing the building, the capabilities of the CATIA computer-aided design system were used to their full potential.
The building is lined with titanium sheets with a total area of 24 thousand m2.
The museum's permanent exhibitions are dedicated to the art of the 20th century — installations and electronic works outnumber traditional paintings and sculptures. The central work of the collection is a series of sculptures of the Essence of Time, made of weather-resistant steel by sculptor Richard Serra and housed in the Arcelor Gallery.
Most of the collection consists of avant-garde works and abstractions.
Louvre Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates): The Louvre Abu Dhabi building has many water channels and a huge openwork dome. This allows visitors to create the feeling that the museum is located in the open air in the open sea. The building area is approximately 24,000 m2.
The architect of the Louvre Abu Dhabi is Jean Nouvel. The decision to create the museum was made in 2007. Construction began on May 26, 2009, and the ceremony was attended by French President Jacques Chirac and Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. On November 11, 2017, the museum was opened to the public.
The museum displays exhibits from the Louvre, the Pompidou Center and Versailles. The agreement with the French provides for the provision of masterpieces for ten years: first 300 works of art, then 250 and 200 for several years.
In 2014, it was announced that the Louvre Abu Dhabi would lease Leonardo da Vinci's "La Belle Ferronniere", Matisse paintings, Van Gogh self-portrait, "Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass" by Jacques-Louis David, "Gare Saint-Lazare" by Claude Monet from French museums.
There are also themed halls in the museum, where antiquities from various countries are exhibited: China, India, Iraq, Congo, etc. The museum presents religious objects of different cultures side by side: a page from the "Blue Koran" of the IX century, the Yemeni Torah of 1498 and two Gothic Bibles of the XIII century. Other Arab museums have lent the Louvre Abu Dhabi 28 significant exhibits, including a two-headed bust from Ain Ghazal (Jordan, 6000 BC), about 400 silver dirhams from Oman and a stone tool from Saudi Arabia (350,000 BC). The museum is called the first universal museum in the Arab world.
The National Museum of Qatar (Qatar): Jean Nouvel designed the Qatar National Museum around a small palace erected for the family of Sheikh al-Thani in the early twentieth century. Even though today the museum is surrounded by a modern urban landscape, it is still influenced by the desert and the sea. The source of inspiration for Nouvel was the "desert rose" – a gypsum crystal that forms in the thickness of the sand after rain.
The building in Doha consists of similar intricately connected discs: the smallest of them reaches a diameter of 14 meters, the largest is 87 m. The gaps between them are covered with glazing, and the frames are recessed into the walls, floor and ceiling to avoid visual "seams". In the interior, the walls are covered with imitation stucco stone, and the ceiling is covered with acoustic plaster.
The total area of the 330 m–long building is 52,000 m2, of which 7,000 m2 are allocated for permanent exhibition. The interiors and "museography" of these 11 enfilade halls were also created in the bureau of Jean Nouvel. 1,700 m2 are devoted to temporary exhibitions: the first was the "Creation of Doha", which covers the period 1950-2030: from the first heyday caused by the discovery of oil to large-scale projects planned in the future.
The exhibition spaces are looped around a vast courtyard, "bars", as it is called in Qatar. It is adapted for various events, but an audience of 213 spectators is also suitable for these purposes. Other facilities include extensive lobbies, two restoration laboratories and administrative offices for 150 employees, two cafes and a panoramic restaurant, two shops, special areas for VIP guests and school groups. There is an 11.5-hectare park around the museum.
The Broad (United States): This is the Museum of Modern Art on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. The museum is named after philanthropists Eli and Edith Broad, who funded the construction of a $140 million building housing Broad's art collections. The museum has free general admission to the galleries of its permanent collection. However, not all of its events are free, and admission prices may vary depending on the exhibition or event. It opened on September 20, 2015.
Since the museum is located next to the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, the design of the museum is intended to contrast with its bright metal perforated exterior, while maintaining its architectural presence due to the porous, "honeycomb-like" exterior. The cladding consists of 2,500 diamond-shaped panels of fiberglass-reinforced concrete supported by a 650-ton steel structure.
The three-storey museum has 4,600 m2 of exhibition space on two floors, with 3,300 m2 of gallery space without columns on the third floor and 1,400 m2 on the ground floor. There are 318 skylights on the roof that let in scattered sunlight from the north. There is no reception in the lobby; instead, customer service staff greet guests using mobile devices. The lobby and exhibition areas are connected by an escalator and a glazed elevator.
The Broad houses a contemporary art collection of almost 2,000 exhibits, featuring 200 artists, including works by Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Ed Rusch, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.
The building also serves as the headquarters of the Broad Art Foundation's Library of contemporary works.
Heydar Aliyev Center (Azerbaijan): It is a cultural center in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. It is a complex structure that includes an auditorium (congress center), a museum, exhibition halls, and administrative offices. The center was designed in 2007 by architect Zaha Hadid. The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center is considered one of the symbols of modern Baku.
The building area is 57519 m2. The white color of the building symbolizes a bright future. Due to the white color, the rays of light move across the surface of the building and emphasize the prominent parts of the building. In addition to the building of the center, the complex includes an underground parking and a park with an area of 13.58 hectares. There are two decorative ponds and an artificial lake on the territory of the complex.
An exhibition entitled "Masterpieces of Azerbaijan" is presented on the ground floor of the cultural center. Unique exhibits reflecting the history of the country and its cultural heritage are on display here. The exhibition presents all periods of the history of Azerbaijan, exhibits related to various fields of its culture are on display.
Models of 45 historical and architectural buildings of Azerbaijan, located both in Baku and in other regions of Azerbaijan, are on display on the second floor of the cultural center within the framework of the Mini-Azerbaijan project. Visitors can get information in Azerbaijani and English about each building, its architect, and architectural style.
Located on the third floor, the exhibition hall called "Welcome to Azerbaijan" is also aimed at popularizing Azerbaijan. The history, culture, art and nature of Azerbaijan are shown here. At the exhibition, visitors can see photographs of sights, natural and architectural monuments located in various regions of the country. For example, here you can see photos of such attractions as the Momine Khatun Mausoleum in Nakhichevan, the Church in the village of Kish, the Palace of Shirvanshahs, etc.
The Museum of Tomorrow (Brazil): The Museum of Tomorrow is a science museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was designed by the Spanish neo-futurist architect Santiago Calatrava and built next to the Pier Maua waterfront. Its construction was supported by the Roberto Marinho Foundation and cost about 230 million reais. The building was opened on December 17, 2015.
The main exhibition conducts visitors in five main areas: Space, Earth, the Anthropocene, Tomorrow and Us through a series of experiments and experiments. This sophisticated but fascinating museum combines science with innovative design to focus on sustainable cities and an eco-friendly world. Museum of Tomorrow is an Applied Sciences museum which explores the opportunities and challenges which humanity will be forced to tackle in the coming decades from the perspective of sustainability and conviviality.
The museum was part of the reconstruction of the city's port area for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), Seattle, USA: The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a non-profit museum in Seattle, Washington, USA, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as an Experience music project. Since then, MoPOP has organized dozens of exhibitions, 17 of which have toured the United States and abroad. MoPOP is home to numerous exhibits and interactive venues, as well as sound sculpture and various educational resources.
The 13,000 m2 building, designed by Frank Gehry, accommodates several galleries and the Sky Church, which houses the Barco C7 black package LED screen, one of the largest indoor LED screens in the world.
The exhibits cover pop culture, from fantasy art, horror movies and video games to science fiction literature and costumes from the screen and stage. Interactive events are held in galleries such as the Sound Lab and on stage, where visitors can practice rock and roll instruments with instruments and perform music in front of a virtual audience.
The museum houses the world's largest collection of artifacts, handwritten lyrics, personal instruments and original photographs dedicated to the music and history of Seattle musician Jimi Hendrix and the band Nirvana.
MoPOP is located on the Downtown Seattle campus, next to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail that runs through the building. The structure itself was designed by Frank Gehry and resembles many of his company's other works in its sheet metal construction, such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Gehry Tower.
The Biomuseo, Panama City, Panama: It is a biodiversity museum designed by Frank Gehry. The museum with its multicolored aluminum roof should remind you of the vibrant nature of Panama, the metal roofs of local huts and the historical structures of the canal infrastructure. Located on a narrow peninsula jutting out into the bay, the building is visible from afar and can itself offer its visitors panoramic views of the city and the Pacific "mouth" of the Panama Canal.
The Washington Smithsonian Institution was responsible for the scientific side of the project, and Biomuseo became its only partner museum outside the United States.
The museum is dedicated to the amazing diversity of nature of the Isthmus of Panama: with an area of 75,000 km2, there are more species of birds, mammals, reptiles and plants than in the United States and Canada combined. In addition, the exhibition tells in detail about the process of the isthmus, which began 12 million years ago and ended 3 million years ago. Its appearance changed ecosystems and climate on a planetary scale: instead of a single ocean, very different Atlantic and Pacific oceans arose, the Gulf Stream "started" from the emerging Caribbean Sea, and North and South America united for the first time in 70 million years. An active migration of animals began along the isthmus, and relatively recently, 15,000 years ago, the first people passed from north to south along this route.
Biomuseo, which cost $ 95 million (not counting the cost of not yet ready exhibition halls), is designed primarily for schoolchildren (it is planned to bring 40,000 students there for free excursions per year) and for tourists, the benefit of the cruise ship terminal is very close.
The Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria: The Kunsthaus in Graz is a museum and gallery of modern art, opened as part of the Cultural Capital of Europe program in 2003. The concept of the building was developed by London architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier.
The building is built in the blob style, in stark contrast to the surrounding buildings. The base of the building is made of reinforced concrete, the outer shell is made of bluish plastic panels. The Kunsthaus looks decent despite the very low budget for such cultural buildings in large cities. The interior, according to Colin Fournier, should resemble a magician's black box.
The facade of the museum is made using BIX technology as a 900 m2 media installation consisting of luminous elements that can be programmed using a computer. It allows the museum to communicate with the urban space around. The installation has won a number of awards.
The museum was built in the city center among the red tiled roofs of the historical buildings. The contrast of the biomorphic structure of the Kunsthaus with the old Clock Tower is a kind of dialogue between tradition and the avant—garde. The object has become one of the symbols of the city. Both functionality and urban planning structure were taken into account, and the museum became a kind of bridge between the past and the future.
The Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, Spain: The Dali Theatre Museum is a museum of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, located in Figueres, Catalonia. The center of the museum complex is the building of the old city theater, where in 1918, at the age of 14, Dali first exhibited his works.
The silhouette of the Theater Museum has become a symbol of international pop art. Its geodesic dome is not to be confused with anything, the construction of the roof over the museum stage was commissioned by Emilio Perez Pinheiro and began in January 1973. To do this, the architect used a glass and steel structure, inspired by the works of American designer Richard Fuller.
During 1984, the walls of the building were gradually covered with loaves of peasant bread. By rhythmically repeating the loaves, the house was supposed to produce an effect similar to the shell mansion of the Casa de Las Conchas in Salamanca or the Italian Palazzo Diamanti. This technique, already tested by Dali in the mid-50s at a house in Kadakes, reflected the artist's admiration for bread. To complete the exterior design, the artist selected several giant eggs similar to those that decorate the house of Port Lligate. The choice was quite natural: Dali used eggs in many of his paintings, performances, actions and sculptures. In addition to the fact that eggs symbolize food, Ampourdan eggs, especially yellow ones, are famous for their quality and are valued much more expensive in the markets than others.
The museum houses the largest and most diverse collection of works by the great surrealist, which is based on his own collection. Visitors can see "The Ghost of Sexual Attractiveness" (1932), "Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops Balanced on Her Shoulder" (1933), "Basket of Bread" (1945), " Galatea of the Spheres" (1952) and many other works by the author.
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) (Cape Town, South Africa): This is an art museum in the South African city of Cape Town, opened in September 2017; it is located on the Victoria and Albert Embankment, on the shore of Table Bay - in a former grain storage building with a height of 57 meters.
The embankment is considered a prestigious shopping and hotel area, and already receives about 24 million visitors a year. The nearest neighborhood of the museum, the Silo District, is also planned to be developed in the future.
In general, the museum complex has an area of 9,500 square meters; its exhibition area is 6,000 m2, which are distributed over nine floors-levels. In addition, there are 18 educational sites (classrooms) on one floor; the building also has a sculpture garden, a restaurant and a museum store. The upper part of the building operates as The Silo Hotel, which opened its doors in March 2017. In 2018, the building was included in the international list of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Museum of Islamic Art (Qatar): The museum in Doha, the capital of Qatar, was designed by architect Bei Yumin. The interior design of the museum's galleries was developed by the team of architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The halls are located on 3 floors.
The museum building is designed in the style of ancient Islamic architecture, but has a unique design. It was the first of its kind in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf and contains a large collection of Islamic art, a research institute and a library. The museum also includes IDAM, a high-end restaurant offering French Mediterranean cuisine with Arabic motifs.
The total area of the museum is 45,000 m2, it is located on the edge of Doha Harbor at the southern tip of Doha Bay. The museum has a collection of Islamic art objects that has been collected since the late 1980s, which also includes manuscripts, textile objects and ceramics. It is one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic artifacts in the world, objects found or originating from Spain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India and Central Asia. The peculiarity of the exhibition is in dark halls without general lighting with directed beams of light on each individual exhibit.
These museums showcase the transformative power of architecture in shaping cultural institutions and creating memorable visitor experiences. Each building is not only a work of art in itself but also a testament to the visionary architects who dared to push the boundaries of design.