SYNOPSIS:

MUSEUM
ARCHITECTURE

BY GOPIKA THAPLYAL
4TH YEAR B.ARCH
INTRODUCTION:

A museum is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and

other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes
them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or
temporary .Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and
specialists to serving the general public. Museum architecture has been of
increasing importance over the centuries, especially more recently. The
continuing acceleration in the digitization of information,
combined with the increasing capacity of digital information
storage, is causing the traditional model of museums (i.e. as
static collections of collections of three-dimensional specimens
and artifacts) to expand to include virtual exhibits and highresolution images of their collections for perusal, study, and
exploration from any place with Internet. The purpose of modern
museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of cultural, artistic, or
scientific significance for the education of the public.

AIM:
To establish emerging design concepts in planning, design,
exhibition, technology and form in museum architecture.

OBJECTIVE:
To trace the history of the museums in the world and
establishment of museums in India.
To define various types of museums in the light of the role
they play and study their organization and infrastructure.
To list the factors which govern effective museum design
keeping in mind the nature of the museum.
To study architectural expression of the museum

NEED OF THE STUDY:

The museums are very important institution of the society and

have come along a long way from time when they were merely
private collections of the elite or treasure houses for the
preservation of art and culture heritage of mankind. Today in
addition to preservation museums have many more
responsibilities especially in spheres of culture and education.
Present modern museums basically depends on multiplicity of
function, expansion and diversification of exhibited material,
conservation, flexibility, expressive form and multimedia.as
museums have evolved amazingly all over the world there is a
need of evolution and design of museums in Indian context.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION:

There are various types of museums. I will cater to museum architecture in general,
aspects like transitional spaces, lighting, circulation and exhibition will be
discussed.
However this dissertation will not be specific on any typology of museum but in
terms of what makes a museum work efficiently.

METHODOLOGY:
1.

The study will be based on literature available on the subject in

books, journals, research documents and the internet.
2. The reports of periodic seminars held on the subject will also be
studied from the institutional libraries.
3. Museum designs will be studied all over the world.
4. Case studies will be done of practical examples of landscapes
already implemented within and outside the country. These will be
i
ii

National museum, New delhi

Virasat e-khalsa , Anandpur

iii
iv

National gallery of modern art , New delhi

National science centre,New Delhi

BROAD CHAPTERIZATION PLAN

> Acknowledgement
> List of Contents
1. Introduction
2. History of museums
Early museums
Museum in India
Significance of Museum
3. Various types of museum
4. Space planning of museum

Entrance approach
Various system of arrangements

5 Circulation and its effect on user experience in a museum

Circulation
Interaction between spatial design and display layout
transitional spaces

6 Importance of light in a museum

Parameters of architectural illumination
Various light sources used in exhibition spaces
7 Primary Case study
8

Conclusion