Rethinking Museums: A Conversation with Beatrice Grenier on Architecture as Cultural Policy

"As cultural institutions continue to proliferate worldwide in this digital era, the museum itself appears increasingly in need of redefinition. Rather than offering a single model or solution, Architecture for Culture: Rethinking Museums, written by architectural historian and curator Béatrice Grenier, argues for a more contextual and plural understanding of what a museum can be: an institution shaped by its environment, its public, and the specific cultural questions it seeks to address."

"The opening of the new Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris last October sparked renewed questions around the role, form, and future of museums. ArchDaily had the opportunity to discuss these ideas with the author against the backdrop of the Fondation Cartier's newly inaugurated home on Rue de Rivoli. Housed within a restored Haussmannian building that once accommodated the Grands Magasins du Louvre, the space has been radically reimagined by Jean Nouvel as a dynamic, transformable architecture."

The reopening of the Fondation Cartier in Paris highlighted questions about the role, form, and future of museums amid global proliferation of cultural institutions in the digital era. Museums increasingly require redefinition and flexible models rather than a single prescriptive form. A contextual and plural understanding positions museums as institutions shaped by their environment, publics, and the specific cultural questions they address. The Fondation Cartier's restored Haussmannian building on Rue de Rivoli, reimagined by Jean Nouvel as dynamic, transformable architecture, exemplifies how adaptive architectural strategies can respond to contemporary museological needs.

Read at ArchDaily