Arquitectura

Recent studies of spatial behavior have demonstrated that people's behavior in contemporary museums is significantly more affected by the physical forms of the building than by what it exhibits. This definitive finding contributes to establishing a clear position in the longstanding debate concerning cultural buildings-container or contained?-and hence concerning what a contemporary museum should be, or how its internal hierarchies should be arranged. This discussion has a long history: in the last few decades we have witnessed significant changes in the notion of the museum as a public building and its role for the city and-more broadly-for culture and society. Examples stretch from noble containers in which the main attraction and the source of its distinctive character are the exhibits the museum houses (think of the Sir John Soane house in London) to projects that are so powerfully evocative and breathtaking as to attract all the attention per se until the museums themselves become the main piece on exhibit. Over time, architects and their commissioners have challenged traditional conceptions of the museum, and with them, standard assumptions as to its possible place in the city and its role in society.