Dead Zoo @ Risk?

Awful news.

Untouched museum of museums.

Who came up with this notion that it is a ‘museum of museums’? who are we fooling? It is a very fine building but lets not exaggerate and I don’t know why extending it is seen as bad news? If the same logic was used with the national Gallery – it would be only 1/3 the size it is today and I have never heard any say that the 2 existing extensions to that building ruined it.
Of course this will have to be done tastefully.

I am with Paul Clerkin on this one. If we want a modern Natural History Museum we should house it seperately. Unlike the National Gallery, the National History Museum hasn’t evolved with time and quite by accident has become a perfectly perserved example of a past, and by some regreted, idea of how a museum should look.

“the National History Museum hasn’t evolved with time” – surely the present is part of the greater timeline also. The challenge for (great) architects is to surmount challenges like these and achieve the twin objects (in this case) of preserving the original museum and addressing the needs of the museum in terms of space in an inspired fashion, which itself will add to its overall greatness. Extension is not a dirty word.

I’m uneasy about the proposed works – although I can see that the existing building is seriously under serviced – by which I mean that internal environmental control is pretty antideluvian – eg: steam heating pipes everywhere – minimal air flow and temperature control – it probably is true to say that unless these services are seriously upgraded that the collections will fall apart.

That said – the dead zoo is a peculiarly intact survivor of the victorian era and could not sutvive internal re-modelling no matter how well intentioned or designed. Yes by all means the OPW should deal with the services requirements but the notion of ‘architecturalising’ it is absolutely horrendous an will definitely meet serious opposition.

I’m uneasy about the proposed works – although I can see that the existing building is seriously under serviced – by which I mean that internal environmental control is pretty antideluvian – eg: steam heating pipes everywhere – minimal air flow and temperature control – it probably is true to say that unless these services are seriously upgraded that the collections will fall apart.

That said – the dead zoo is a peculiarly intact survivor of the victorian era and could not sutvive internal re-modelling no matter how well intentioned or designed. Yes by all means the OPW should deal with the services requirements but the notion of ‘architecturalising’ it is absolutely horrendous and will definitely meet serious opposition.

Paul is absolutely correct here – the museum itself is a museum piece – and an important one. Very little of that era of collecting actually survives intact. The cases, hanging of exhibits, drawer exhibits and galleried collections are very particular to the 19th century concept of a museum and should not be interfered with.

I think multimedia kiosks can be extremely useful in a museum. If developed with respect for the context and with a proper understanding of the artifacts, they offer a much greater insight into the artifacts/history presented in the least intrusive manner.

There is an awful lot of dross (kiosk wise) in museums at the moment, but don’t damn the concept just because of some poor execution to date.

(disclaimer: I’ve worked on museum kiosk design)

Just looking at this months National Geographic (November 2001), there is a photograph of Paris’s Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle. It has the same vibe and atmosphere as our own. Difference is that it has more windows and is lower, and the iron work is a bit more art nouveau. But it has all the cases etc, lots of dead animals, and no sign of multimedia kiosks (*spit*).

kids leaving the NHM think that all animals are a faded grey colour !!

The Paris Museum has been very artfully rearranged and redesigned. It was indeed a Dead Zoo, and closed for years, stuffed animals gathering dust etc.

It was best when they reopened it to a limited extent and just let you gaze down on the dusty cases from an upper gallery. A bit of clever lighting was all it needed.

Then interest grew and the place was fully reopened – which meant it lost some of that elegiac quality, but still has a “museum of a museum” twist to it. It’s done with wit.