Monday, April 8, 2019

Interesting Museum Buildings Around the World

ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN

22 of the Most Interesting Museum Buildings Around the World

22 Slides

These structures are just as intriguing as the collections they house

April 5, 2019

22 of the Most Interesting Museum Buildings Around the World — Image courtesy Of Wikimedia Commons.

There's an old adage that states it's only what's inside that matters, but the saying doesn't quite apply to museum buildings—or at least it shouldn't. Any good museum worth its salt knows that if it intends to captivate and enchant its visitors with its collections and exhibitions, the inspiration should spark long before they walk through the front doors. The buildings on this list blur the line between art and architecture; they're structures that look unlike anything to have come before. Of course, some—like Thomas Heatherwick's Zeitz MOCCA or the to-be-built Herzog & de Meuron–designed new Vancouver Art Gallery—are stunning examples of contemporary architecture, while other structures such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum have stood the test of time. At once full of wonder and intrigue in addition to pure beauty, the institutions on this list are just as enchanting as the collections they exhibit inside.

Photo by View Pictures/UIG via Getty Images.

1/22

Ordos Museum—Ordos, China
Photo by Maciej Lulko.

2/22

Denver Art Museum—Denver, Colorado
FG/Bauer-Griffin

3/22

The Broad—Los Angeles, California

LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 29: Exterior view of the Broad Museum on Grand Avenue on September 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Photo by Dennis Jarvis.

4/22

Royal Ontario Museum—Ontario, Canada
Photo by chesnot/Corbis via Getty Images.

5/22

Fondation Louis Vuitton—Paris, France
Photo by: Hermes Images/AGF/UIG via Getty Images.

6/22

Museum of Islamic Art—Doha, Qatar
Photo by: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images.

7/22

Salvador Dalí Museum—St. Petersburg, Florida

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)

Photo by: Bildagentur-online/UIG via Getty Images.

8/22

Niterói Contemporary Art Museum—Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Photo by: Hufton+Crow/View Pictures/UIG via Getty Images.

9/22

Messner Mountain Museum—Corones, Italy
Photo by Gary Porter. Courtesy Getty Images.

10/22

City of Arts and Sciences—Valencia, Spain
Photo by Michael Jacobs/Art in All of Us. Image courtesy of Getty Images.

11/22

Museum aan de Stroom—Antwerp, Belgium

Photo by Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

12/22

Metropol Parasol—Seville, Spain
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

13/22

Design Museum Holon—Holon, Israel
Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images.

14/22

Museo Soumaya—Mexico City, Mexico
Photo: Getty Images/robertcicchetti

15/22

Guggenheim Museum—New York City, New York

Rendering courtesy of Vancouver Art Gallery.

16/22

Vancouver Art Gallery—Vancouver, Canada

Herzog & de Meuron.
Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images.

17/22

ArtsSciences Museum—Singapore
Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images.

18/22

Museo Guggenheim Bilbao—Bilbao, Spain
Image courtesy Of Wikimedia Commons.

19/22

Kunsthaus Graz—Graz, Austria

Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of Alberta.

20/22

Art Gallery of Alberta—Alberta, Canada
Photo: Iwan Baan

21/22

Zeitz MOCAA—Cape Town, South Africa
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

22/22

Weisman Art Museum—Minneapolis, Minnesota