Since the ‘Bilbao effect’ became common parlance, we’ve experienced a cultural revolution, during which architects and great museum collections have transformed cities and tourism. The most exciting new museums opening in 2018 are not only reinvigorating their milieus but redefining what a museum can be. Here are our top 10.
Hayward Gallery, London
The Southbank’s Brutalist art space reopens with broader, brighter galleries after a two-year refurb of its 66 pyramidal rooflights, previously blocked with a false roof to stem a leaking ceiling. Its removal will allowing natural light to stream into the upper galleries and give the rooms more height.
Opening in 25 January 2018
Beta Main (Artists in Residence complex), Los Angeles
Last year the Main opened the first phase of its three-building, experimental art museum in downtown LA. In a month, veteran California architect Tom Wiscombe completes a mezzanine gallery with a 12-metre glass wall, along with five artist-in-residence studios.
Opening in 25 February 2018
Guardian Art Center, Beijing
Guardian Art Center is one of the world’s few modern auction houses – and Ole Scheeren’s contemporary monochrome building, sat amid ancient Beijing, doubles as a museum and ‘lifestyle destination’. The brickwork and grey cladding echo the tone of the surrounding hutongs, with artful punctures borrowed from historic Chinese painting.
Opening in May 2018
Tai Kwun Center for Heritage & Arts, Hong Kong
Tai Kwun is Cantonese for ‘big station’ and indeed Hong Kong’s Central Police Station sat in a walled heritage compound until Herzog + de Meuron began its epic revitalisation. Their plan updates the existing buildings as contemporary cultural venues and adds new spaces within landscaped courtyards.
Opening in Summer 2018
V&A, Dundee
Nearly 2,500 cast-stone panels form the sculptural façade of this giant hull-shaped new museum, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in Dundee. Literally anchored in the River Tay, it will be Scotland’s first museum to showcase innovative local design dating back to Charles Rennie MacIntosh.
Opening on 15 September 2018
Fotografiska, London
The Swedish photography museum is expanding across the pond to New York’s Flatiron District, but first it opens an outpost in London, occupying the lower floors of a concrete building reconfigured by architects Fletcher Priest. The wide, windowed space buffs up a dowdy corner of Whitechapel with artwork by Helmut Newton, Sally Mann and other legends.
Opening in November 2018
Tank, Shanghai
An anchor of the new West Bund art district, Tank inhabits five decommissioned oil tanks repurposed by Beijing practice Open Architecture. They’ve developed a ‘super surface’ that links the structures at ground level and conceals them under an undulating, turf-like landscape. Combining a new museum and recreation space, the tanks will house Qiao Zhibing’s art collection, as well as specially commissioned installations.
Opening in November 2018
Glenstone Museum, Maryland
One of America’s lesser-known private museums is about to become one of its largest, stretched over 200 acres outside Washington DC. Dedicated to contemporary art, architecture and landscape, Glenstone reopens with a new building by Thomas Phifer and Partners with landscaping and a water garden by Peter Walker of PWP.
Opening in late 2018
Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza
Heneghan Peng’s colossal new Egyptology museum climbs up to an ancient plateau, guiding visitors to sweeping views of the iconic pyramids. A translucent stone wall, backlit at night, ‘veils’ the triple-peaked, 100,000 sq m structure and its shaded courtyard.
Opening in late 2018
Museum of Image & Sound, Rio de Janeiro
Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s long-awaited new museum will open in 2018 with a ‘vertical boulevard’ leading up eight floors of galleries, theatres, restaurants and a roof terrace overlooking Copacabana Beach. The building celebrates the city’s cultural history, including samba and bossa nova music and Carnival.
Opening in December 2018
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