How
to
construct
the
camel
A Dutch Museum for
Architecture and Spatial
Design
Zef
Hemel
I
/
How to construct the
camel
Bibliotheek
TUDelft
1111\ \ 111\ \ 1\ \11 1\\III \11\ I\11\ I\1
C
0003832878
8342
674
7
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1987No part of this book maybe reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm or an yothe r means, without written permission fro m Delft Un iversity Press.
How to construct the
camel
A Dutch Museum forArchitectureand SpatialDesign by:ZefHem el
trans la tion:JulieSalm
A study com m issioned by the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lo-huizen Foundation
BOARD OF THE EFL-FOUNDATION
Prof. N.L. Prak (chairman) B.van Eeste re n(treasurer) Prof.C.van Eester en Prof.C.W.van Lohui zen D.H.Frieling
Contents
A cand idap p roach to theideal 11
Progr ammeof dem ands 12
- Mu seum s - Architecture
Publicu se 18
- Doers,thinkersand users - Tou ri sm
- Numbers and structure - Morethan a local institution
Exampl es 26
- Histo rie exam ples - Contem po rary exa m ples
- A museum for obse rva tio nand action
Th ree conce ptio n s 37
- Pu bli c storageofthepast,con te m po ra ry information cent reand platform fordiscu ssion about thefuture - The docu me n ta ry museum
- The lab ora torymuseu m - The cu ltu ra l-h istor ica l museum - A fixed arrange me n t
Themuseum 55
- Ideas concern ing function ,formandsig n ifica ne eof a Dutch Institution forSparialDesignan d Architecture - Atte n tio n tothepast ,presen t and future
Preface
Thefoun d ationofaDutch nation al museum ofarch itec tu re and pla nn ing is at present being cons ide red. Thisreport isintended as a cont rib u tio n to thedeb at e abo u tsuehan institution. The van Eeste ren-Flu ck-v an Lohuizen Foundation administers the volu m ino us arc h ives of Cornelis van Eest eren , architect of thc Amst erd am Ext en sion Plan of 1934 and presid ent of C.I.A.M . 1930-1 947 and Theo van Lohui zen , who did the survey on which theAmsterdam plan was based.The new mu-seum will be the obvio us institu tion to store these preciou s
archives and mak e them accessible to thepublic.Thisis themain reason why the EFL Foundati on had com m issio ne d Joseph Hem el, asocial geographer,to rep ort on thevari ous op tio ns such amuseumwouJd have.
Hewas aske d:
- to generate ideas abo u t the fu nc tio n and form of such a mu-seu m
- to evaluatethe conce ptofa 'museum' as public stora ge of the past, con te m po rary informati on cen tre an d platform for dis-cuss ionabo u t thefuture
- to specify the var ious disciplines which migh t be invol ved in suc hamuseum.
TheEFL Foundati on invit ed a number of nationally knowne x-perts from differe nt disciplines to actas ad vise rs to the au thor.
.Jea
n Dethie r , cu ra to r forarchitecture at theCentrePompidou inPa ris,has alsograc iou sly accepted suc han invitation .
As the repo rtshows, thedecisiontocreateamuseum of ar chitec-tureand plannin gstilllea vesa number of questionsunresolved. At least in th ree diffe ren tbut interrelat ed areasclear-cu tcho ices wil!ha vetobemad e:
- for whom? Does the museum ad d re ss itselfto arc h ite cts, plan-nersand builders,to in tellcc tu a lsor to thepublic at large? - in which format? The report describes threc different types of muse u m,eachof which need s a differe n t building
- how extensive?Architectureis part of ala rger urban context,of town -pla n n ing whichintu rn ispart of region alandeve n nati on al plannin g . Planning in volves the lan dsca pe, and - particula rly important in a man-m ad e cou n try - the dikes, canals and r e-clam ati on project s. Shouldall thesedisciplinesfind room in th is onemuseum ?
The budget ofthe new ins ti tu tio n willofneeessity be limited. Outstanding museums eve rywhe re owe thei r repu tatio n to the clea r-cu t eho iees tha t ha ve been mad e: the Museu m of Modern Art in New Vork, the Sted elijk Museu m in Amsterdam or the Cen trc Pompidou in Paris. This rep ort is intended to facilitate
sueha clea r-cut eho iee.
NielsL. Prak
1. jragmentofthe map in the 'Guide de l'ArchitecturedesAnnées25à Bruxelles'.An interesting way to thematically openup thetownjor users
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-R "A candid approach to the 11
ideal
'T he firststep in ade q uate plannin gistomake a fresh canvassof
hu man ideals and human purposes.' The valid ity of this sta te
-ment by Lewis Mumfo rd, the fam ou s Ame rican arc h itect ural
critic, isnotlimi ted solelytothe professional plan nin gfield.For,
every purposeful actio n sho u ld be initiated by an ope n-m inde d
sta teme ntofwha tinspiresthosedirectl yconcern ed .
Th is study should be see n as a first ste p in this direction: no
mor e ,butalso no less.By th is I mean that I hav e conce ived the
role of the investi gator as someon e who ex pre sses his thoughts with an open mind, and thesubject of his attention as the 'ideal', in th is case theideal of an architectu ral museum in the Neth
er-land s. Thus my present ati on of the questi on was: quite apa rt
from the aspec tof reali zati on with all itspracticalprobl em s and restri ction s, how would we envisage the ideal arc h itectu ral
mu-seu m, with in the con tex t of Dutch physical plannin g?This as
-signme nt hasled me th ro ugh thela byrinth ofarc h itect u re, t own-plan n ing, civil eng inee ring, land scapin g , and physical planning onaregional and nati on al scale. Theresultof this pers onal quest
ma ybe read in thefollowingpa ges.
A su bs ta n tial bibliogr aphi c report on the subject 'architectural
museum', com p iled by Sylvia Ha ger s and Lucy Hovinga , was
mad e availa bleto me ata veryearly stage oftheinquiry. For this
I would like to thank the com pi lers and their mentor, Mr. B.
Koevoet s ofthe'K uns th isto r isch Instituu t 'in Leiden .'
I wou ld also like to extend my than ks to the peopl e who ha ve given time andenergy tothis study. I willonly mention afewby
na meher e , incl u d ing: thosewho were kind eno ug htoreceiveme du ring my vario us trips, Jill Lever, Ca ro line Mierop , Her vé
Paind a veine ,Mauri ce Culot and Pet erSchwart z ;thoseI had the
privilege ofgctting to know;Heinrich Klotz, whowas just lea
v-ingfor along visit to the United Stat es ,and Aldo Rossi;those I
corres po nde d with,Wim deWit in Ch icago. Furthermo rethose
with whom I enjoyed sueh pleas ant discussions, including S. H.
Evenblij, Fran k den Oudsten, Lenn ek e Büller, Caro line van Raam sd on k,EricdeKuyp er andCarla Oldenburger.
Fina lly Iam greatly indeb ted to the mem be rsof the com m issio n
who su ppo rted mein my stu d ies: Mr. W.F.Schut , Pro f. A.W.
Reinink , Pro f. Tj. Dijkstra , Mr. D.H. Frielin g , Mr. R.R . de
Haas, Pro f. R. van Engelsdo rp Gastelaars and Jean Dethier. Mor e in parti cul ar I should like to thank Jean Dethier , who on two occasio nsgaveme an exte nsive interview in Paris and co n -tributed so much inter estingmat eri al , and profess orVan Enge ls-dorpGastelaars with whom I had amost sti mu latingexc ha n geof ideas.
12
Programme of demands
Museum
s
It is quite rema rkable how emo tio nally charged the word 'mu -seum' hasbecome.Thiswas certa inly not alwaysthe case. Until fairl yrecentl ythe co nce ptof themuseumthreat en ed to fade and to becomeabsorbed in themaelstrom of the commo n place. The actualmuseum, as man ypeoplethencontended ,was tobe found in thestreets.Too little atte n tion was paidto thespecifictasks of theinstitution, suchas preservation andexh ib itio n. And allth is at a timewhen the conc ept had been bro ad en ed to suc h an ex -tent, that the differcn cebetween a department store and a mu-seum , or between a livin g-room or a com m u n ity centre and a museum washardl ynoti ceabl e an y more .
Themuseum also direct ed itsclftow a rd s theoutside world, it pe -netrat ed thelocal com m u n it iesan d in order to appeal to a wider publicandespecia llyto aless éliteone, ittriedto establishdirect con tac t with theda ilydoin gs ofpeople in the nei gh bou rh ood . At atimewhen so many tab oos were bei n g broken, this was under -sta ndabie. But sim u lta neo us ly the fear in creased that the mu-seu m would renderitsel f su pe rfluo us .
However , a lot hashappen ed since. An econo m iecrisis cast its shado w over Europe , sobe ring up the ranks. Certainties about the afflue n t society su d de nly ap peare d to ha ve been built on quicks and. The end ofthe welfare state was pred icted and the call for a gene ral reori entation which was soon to be heard, producednot onlyadesirefor adifferent econo m ieorderbut also her ald ed a soc ia land cu ltural revolution. In th is pro cess of reo -rientationthemuseumwould ap pear tobe able topla y an i mpor-tan t role.After all themuseumsin Europe areattrac ti ng more vi -sitors thaneve r before. In Franceand in Germany newmuseums have eve n been builtin order to meet thedemand . Apparentl y the grimmerthecr isis, the greaterthe surge to themuseums. Polit iciansshould not ignorethisphenomen on foritsho ws wha t essen tial need s the museums obviou sly satisfy. The best wa y to cou n te rac ta crisis isto underpin and tostren gthenthepositi on of the museumsas institution s.
Architectur
e
The actual establish me n t of a museum fo r arch itect u re in the Ne th erlands has never been clos er than at this particular mo -men t. Thisis certa inlyalso due toarc hitecture itsel f wh ich more than in recent years has gained significan ee as an art form,or at least as a spiritualexerc iseof spec ialvalue and as onewitha pro
-nouncedaesthe ticcom po nen t. Thefact that building satisfies not
13
onlyvery simple demandssuchas a roof overone'shead , a roadto ride on,or acen tre where one ca n work or sh op , but also the essent ia l desire for identification with thesurroundings, leads to
an ide a that is becoming more and more universally accepted.
Architecturemaynotbethedeterminingfact orfor th e happin ess of man, it isat least oncemoreconsidered asan existe n ti al need that deservessatisfaction .
This subject - that is to say , the existe n tial significanee of a r-ch itectu re - was thetopicofalectureby theDutch architect and town-plannerVan Eesteren at acon gressin 1958 of theInt erna-tionalUnionof Architects ,the U.L A. In this lecturehe referred tohis ow n life.
Born on the banks of the river Rhine, in Kinderdijk near
Rot-terd am ,Van Eesteren was alwaysver y muchawareof a personal relationship between himselfand the river : 'so I can reall y say th at I have wanted toex pe r ience theRhine(...)and hav e thcre-foreexplored theriver in its totality, with itstowns, itsvillages, its landscap es, up to its soureein Switzerl and. V
Asamodernhuman beinghefeittheneedforareal, vital con ta ct with his en viron me n t. Aestheti cdogmas , accordin gto him, did notoffer anysolu tio n here; and ye t thereremained a desire for 'beauty and purity' . How did he meet this need? The solution seemed to Van Eeste re n a conscious an d acti ve attitud e towards hisenv iron me n t. Bythishe meant a con tin u ou sconce rn with the shape, the proportions, the scale , the atmosphere, the colou rs , and the forces emanating from the en viro n men t. In this he did notlimit himsel fto a selec tion of individual buildings whichwere more or les s worth inclusion. In fact he sp oke ofa boundless space - with no shar pecon om ie, cu lt u ral, political or social de-mar cationlines.
True , his special conce rn was with the Rhine , but this did not mean that hisinterest stop pedat Lobith, wheretheriver reached the bord er in its cou rse fro m Germ an y. Neitherdid he see the river as an age-old line of separati on between two cu ltu re s, a northern an d a southern. A true co n tact with the en viro n m en t mean ta personalbond,rationalas weilasem o tio nal, with all the things that surro u nde d him: buildings , street s, bridges , dikes , trees, even wat er, and of course the spaces in between. His
conc e ption in this resp ect mat ches the answer Frank Lloyd
Wrigth once gaveto thequestion as towhat he thought arch it ec-ture was reall y all about. Wrigth ' s an swe r was: 'I t is man oe-cu p yin g theearth '.
Thisisexac tly what thearchitecturalmuseum ,thesubjectof this inquir y, should be allabou t : man labouring and inhabiting the earth ,and the wa yhe passes from exploita tion to occupation of the land ,fromove r u se leadin gto exhau stion toalifein harmony with his en viron me n t bybeautifyin git, ad d ing onlybeauty. Van Eest eren em p hasize d the importance ofan act ive attitu d e. Th isis not su r p risin gas he is an architect an d, as he remarked himself, an architect should take act io n, even when he feels reason for hesit ati on.
A morepassivepoint ofviewasto therelationshipwith man's en -vironment, ca me from Van Lohui zen, the scholar. He argued
14
th at man is in a certain sense a product of his environment. Al-though the re is a danger he re of what geographers would later call Environmental Determinism, Van Lohuizen nevertheless pointedout an important fact. We do not live in a homogeneous isotropie space thatleaves us indifferent. Every instant we receiveim p ressio ns of our environment. These are valuable as a means of orientation but also stimulate the process of identification.
Righ t from the start, with our first mo re or less consc ious ob
-servatio ns we mak e ourselves fam iliar with our environment. Theroad fromhometo schoolas everyone remembers it from his orhe r ch ild hoo d, isnot on ly theroutefrompoin tA toB bu t also,
even more so,a cert a in spa cefilled with ima ges and events, with colou rsand sha pes. Our mind re gisters wha t we sme lland feel, hea r andsec; ou remo tio nssee toit that this is consc ious lyor
un-consc iou sly expe rie nce d and psychol ogicall y accepte d. In this
waytheperson alit yisto a greatexte n t nourish ed anden richedby
the en viron me n t, which definitely does not mean , how ever, that weare help iessvictimsof our surroundings. On the con trary, itis
man who shap eshis en viro n me n tand th us it is only he whobears
full respon sibilit y, This is certa inly the case in the Neth erl ands
where, morethan anywhere elsein the world , the env iron ment is give n sha pe th rough human intervention.
What Van Lohui zenwan ted to exp la in is thatthe desires andde -mands of peopl e ,theirplan s andthe iractions, are eithe rto some exte n t stim ulated by, or are reactions to the env iron me nt. The stronge ra personality, the moreconscious his reaction totheen
-viro n me nt will be o And, as Van Lohuizen remarkcd, the more un ive rsa lthe characteristics of the land sca pe , the more uncon-scious ly they will be accepted. The in f1uence of these characte
-ristics isinte rwoven with psych ologicall ife as a who ie;they work through atrnos pherc, colou r, sca le and proportion. Van L
o-huizen denoun ced a narrow-mind ed function al ism , he recog -nized the impo rt an tpsych olo gicalinf1uen ce of the lan dsca pe and
had anope n eye fo r the quali ties that mak e man id en tify himself with it.Ina studyon the cou nt rys idearo u nd Ro tte rd a m ,"carried out in 1927, he testifi ed to his love for the 'po lder' -la ndscape whichhe shared with Van Eeste re n.
It is a study full of keen obse rva tion sandexha us tive regi strati on of landscap e cha rac te r istics. In it thereis no wish for immedi a te
action , nor is thereanyquestionofaform of conse rvatis m . The
objective of Van Lohuizens study wasto acq u ireadescription of
the basic com po ne n t parts of the landscap e , in the hop e of re-vealing their important psych olo gical cont r ib ut io n to the functioning of thosewholivein it.
Thisrati onal ap p roachseem s to bein con trast with Van Eeste
r-en 's moreinstincti ve ap proach. Yetitis ju st ano therway to reach
the same goal: alivin g con tac t withthe env iro n ment. It is a pas
-sive ap proach in the sense that it sees man as a 'prod uct' ofhis env iro n me n t(wh ile Van Eest e ren stressed the activeside of shap
-ingandexplo ring); neverth elessitis active in the sense that it in
-vitesobservationandinci tesconscious nessof thesign ifica nee and
the beautyof town and cou ntry .
Thedesir efor arc h itec tureisno th in gbut a yearn ingfor this liv -ing contact with the env iro n ment. In my op in io n these two co
m-plem entaryvcrsionsof the su bject mak eit clear,whatamuseum
15
ded ica te d to architecture shou ld beabout.In thefirst pla ceI wanted toindicat e that thereisneed ofa co n-ceptofarch itec tu re in the widest possibl e sense. In sp ite of the factthat arc hitec tu re in thenarrow sense of theword mayinclude an improbable amo u n tofbuildingtyp es , it is importantthat the su bject ofthe museum sho u ld not be limited to them . Neither sho u ld the museum be abo u t the th ings arc h itec ts do or mak e. Although th is would bring furniture , doorhandles , lightin g,in -deed, eve n tea spoons , garde ns and mayb e also wallpaper d e-sign s,within the scope of the museum , the em phasisstill liesin anoth er sphere . The museum cer ta inly shou ld not try to give a bias edpresentationofaparticularprofessionalgroup,nor should it restri ct itself to thesole stimulation of that particular prof es-sio nalgroup.The architectural museum is essentially a museum abou tan artform which , setasanid eal, each of us wouldwish to master, namely to give meaning , form and co n te n t to the e n-viro n me n t in which wclive.
Therecan even besaid to bea gene ral lon gin g for architecture , in spite of the assert io n that no interest in architecture exists am on g a wider public. If it co nce rn s knowledge of building sty les, co ns tructio ns, dat es and names of architect s, they might beright. Byno means eve ry body isinterest ed insuc h knowiedge , let alone thatthereis a gene ra l lo ng ing for it. Nev erthelcsspeople hav esomethingin themwhichmak esthem scourtheir su rro u nd -ings and stimulates thcm to trav e!. It is not only a matter of rea chin gthe setgoa l asfast as possibl e ,but also,and this is all too often forgotten ,thetrip itsel fispart of theirsphere of interest.To see how in winte r the ice piles up aga inst the dike of the
IJ
s -selmee r, tobein thewoods of the Veluweduring the su m me r, to tak e aneven ing walk alo ng thebea ch at Sch ev enin gen ,these are allactiv itie s whichstren gth enthe con ta ct with the en viro n me n t -anenv iro n me n t that ismore or less artificia!. For who would not ap p rec ia te avisit to an unknown city? And who would not su b -scribe to the co nse rvatio n of nature , eve n when it resultsin 'no -ad m ission' signs?Doesnoteve ryone of us feel a needforco n tac t with an im als and plants in their natural surroundings? - sur-roundings , for that matter,that weresolutely try to maintain in thissmallcou n try (so much for being ca lled 'artificial'!) .Even an ab strac t longing for untilled land ,for an open and unspoiled ho -rizon, movesmany peopleto action.Weallneed it and byinv es-tigating our surroundings, wc find the places wherc our diver -gen t wishes are fulfilled . In otherwords,our environment is not purelydecorative ,notjust a ba ck groundfor our acti vities . No, it formsa muchmoreessenti al part ofou r life. The en viron me n t is, in thewords of the Norwegian arc h itec tural historian Norb erg-Schul z, existe n tia lspacc .4So far the poin t ofmy arg u me n t ha sbeen to ex pla in thatin the fra me wo rkofanarc h itec tu ra l museum , the conce ptarc h itect u re sho uld betak en in thewid est possibl e sense of theword: it co n-cerns allaspec tsofthe envi ro n me nt.
Furthermore ,that in suc h an institutionthemain objective isto stre ng the n the co n tac t betweenman on the one hand and on the othe rthisspacia len tity that hewant sto know and to expe rience .
16
Thereis athirdaspect. Theintroduct ory view pointsserved as an expla na tion of thefact that strengthening ofthe contact be tw ee n man and his en viron me n t ma ybe ach ieved in twoways: through observatio n and creation, through a pas sive and an active atti-tude. In both cases the aim is to reach a sim ila rgoa l, nam ely to enjoy, or rath er, to expe rie nce beauty . Throu gh observation knowled gewill increaseand eve ry bo dy knowsthat bette r unde r-sta nd ing often leadsto abette r sen seof beauty .But the ob serva-tion ncednotbcstrictlyanaly tica Iand intellectual: we experience the enviro n m e n t with allour sen ses.Itis only inth iswa y thatwe actually ha vethefeelin g of reall ybeing 'somewhere'.Throughthe act of crcation, intuition is used inatot all ydiffe re nt marmer: if it is welldone , new beauty can then be ad de d. In ef-fect it is no different to a good football mat ch: from the stands and in the fieldwh at ultimatelymatters is the same, namely the expe rienc ing ofan exci ti ng mat ch . Thisdist in ct ion between ob -servation andcreatio nas two waysin which con tact isma d e bet
-ween man and his en viro n men t, can also be found in the
mu-seu m where eithe r rell eerion or involvement de te rmi n es the at -mosph ere.
There rem ain sa fourth aspec t. The creative pro cessin ph ysicaI plannin g is an unremitting process. New need s demand new cons truc tio ns.Therewill ne ve rbethe ulti mate buildin g. Towns con tin uou sly cha nge their ap peara nce and the same goes for virt u ally anylandscape. Everyon e who know s the prints ofJö rg Müller, knows wh at this ch a nge mean s: it is difficui t in a con-tinually cha n ging en vironme n t to keep in touc h with this en-viron me nt. In actu al fa ct there is a 'do-world", formed by sensible , practicalpeople who are aIways lookin g for new pro
-ject s. It is the world of con tractors , real- est ar e develope rs, in-vestors, plann ers, enginee rs and man a gers. On the other han d there are those along the sidelines, com me n ti ng on the work of the 'do -e rs'. These are thejourn ali sts, the scho lars and the ar-tists. Between thosetwo worlds,thatofthe do ers and the thi nk -ers (because they lim it themsclv es to thinking) , there is Iittl e con tact. Thequestion iswhy . Discu ssion is gene ra lly limi ted to the thinkers ' circlc - it is they who often eve n overrate the sig-nifican ce of the deb at e . The doers prefer to keep themselves aloof, they secthedebate as a waste of time. Theresult ofthei r effo rts isaconsu mabJe, ach ieve dacco rd ing to thelaw s ofsu p ply and demand. Discussion does not enco u rage produ ctivity , and the expe rim en t entai ls too many risk s. In the ir op inio n it is
dangerou s to bring so me th in g new and unusu al on the market
and itca n onlybejustificd,when marketrese archhas esta blished th at there is a dem and for it. Therc is little app rec ia tion for aesthe tic eIabo ra tio ns. Doers usu all y speakof'b u ild ing ' , no t of 'a rchitecture ' . Indeed whysho uld they?
Norberg-Schul zhad a cIear ans we r tothiswhen he expla inedthe co nce pt of'ge n ius loci'.Architecture .he said,means visuali zin g the gen ius loci.It is thetaskof the arc h itec t to create mean in gful places . It is senseless in fact , to imagine an even t without im-plicatingtheplaceofaction.The'place ' is an integr aIpart ofour
existe nce. Thus eve ry building activity should leadto an awa re -
17
ness ofthe existe nt ia l meanin g of places."The aim ofarc h itec tu re isto mov e us', Le Corbusier wrote , lf the act of building does not mov e and exc ite us, it can not be called arc h itec tu re and conse q ue nt ly something basic is lacking in ou rexiste nce.
All too often - and especia lly in the period after the Second World Wa r- the arc h itect was seen as a do- er, not as the artist belong ing totheworld of thinkers.Thearchitect was the creator of funct ional, th at is, meanin gless spa ce. Hedid not seem to be ableto addcharacterto anarea; in his functional approachhela c-ked any capac ity to shape a site into a placewith an individual id en ti ty .One stillofte n hearsthat no matter where a particular buildin gisreal ized ,wheth erit be Moscow ,Veniceor San Fran-cisco : no-onewill noticethedifference.
However, now that arc h itec ts are no longer considered as pure techni cian sbut areagainesta blishin g a name as artists, thereis a chang e for the better. lmagination and creativity are gain ing
grou ndand asHeinri ch Klotz , directorof thearchitectural mu-seum in Frankfurtam Main , righ tly put it,this wililead to arch
i-teer safte rall bein g co ns ide redasenligh te n ed spiritsagain. It as-socia tes themwith adifferent world and a totally differentway of life . Arc h itec tsonce morefeel attracted to theworld of reflective thou gh t an dcommc n t."
Allthisgoes ra th erbeyond thesubject of this study ; as regards thearchitec tu ra l museumitdoesnotin thefirst pla ce co nce rn the professio nal perform an ce ofthe arc h itec ts. As was mentionedb c-fore, the muse u m is involved with art, not with the profession.
Mu ch more essen tia l for the functi oning of the museum is the contact that it can establish betw een doers and thinkers. And establishinsuc hawa y thattheadvent u ro u s will reap theben efit s that are the result of obse rva tions an d ex pe r ime n ts by the cautious. Of cou rse there is que stion of a dialogu e here : the re must be some exchange betw een the two ske tche d worlds: what would the th in kers have to co m m u n ica te if they knew nothing abo ut theeffortsand del ibe ra tionsof the doers?
A concl us ionofgreat importance fo r themuseummay be found inthe rem ark that twoformsof co n tac t haveto bemaintained by themuseum. The one form is therelationship between man and his env iro n me n t - in itself a noncommittal pronouncem ent that will ha ve to be ela bo ra ted upon in the following chapters. The othc r istheinterrelation shipbetween people, or rather between thosewho keep drasti call y eha ng ing the en viro n me n t and those who in what ever wa y pass com me n ts . This last statement also seems non committal at first sigh t, butis far from it: all too often comme nt keep s going arou nd in the circles of thethinkers th em-selves and doesnot reach those who should reall yprofit from it, namelythe doers.To establishcom m u n ica tio n will be quite atall order for the arch itec tu ra l museum.
18
Public use
D
oers
,
think
ers,
u
sers
In thelastpa ragr aphwchad actuallyalread y distinguish edthree
poten tia lgrou psof clients .Thefirst arethegen eralpublicuse rs
who form the targe t grou p: the contact with the env iro n me nt
soug htby th isgroup ,sho uld find a broaderbas ein themuseum .
The second is the doe rs'group .
Thethird that of thethinker s.
The two last men tioned groups are formed by peopl e who are professionall yinvolved with the processof building and design .
Althou ghthedoer slivewith a perpetual lack of time and do not
reall ybelon g to the traditio nalclienteleof museums,ther e must
neverthelessbe some inter est in an architecturalmuseum amo ng
their ranks. They will not take much inter est in theoreti cals
pe-cu lation . No r will they wish to digest much text-rnatter - suc h
time-con suming affai rs are no t in the ir own interest. Doer s are
very much orien tedtowards thefutu re,butavoidexperiments.lt ispreciselyin the sphereofexplo ra tionof thefuturethat the
mu-seu m must mak ean appeal. Thethink er s, as was said before , en
-joy deb atin g . They will feel com m itte d to the museum when it
fu net ions as a 'pla tform ' for discussion . Because this gro up in
particular cons ide rsa critica lattitudeasthe supremegood,every
hint of populari zati on is anathema . Theproblem isthat they are
split up into very differen t, often co n flictin g grou ps. lt is t
herc-foredifficult for a museum to please thegroupas a whoie. Even
acade m ies from differen t discipli nes lack a co m m on den
orni-nat or.
J
ust thinkoftherelati on shi p bet weenartistsand scientists !Neverth eless, in spite of the heterogen eou s composition of the
particip an ts, thedeb a tema y at least function as a mean s of g iv-ing the various sectio ns an opportunity to tak e a sta nd. We
should mention hereoncemor e thatthe taskof themuseum goes
further than just gatheringth inkers together. It is precisel y the
con tacts between them andthe doers which areof theutmostim -portan ce for a meaningful fu nc tio n ing of an architectural
mu-seum.
Indeed ,therem ainin g gro upis ofa very vague and unsegmen ted
com pos itio n: the gene ra l group of public users. There is little
point in philosophi zin g abo u t their prese nce in the arc h itec tu ral
museum. Distin gui shin g this group only makes sense when we
fatho m itsnecd s.
In the eve nt that thearchitecturalmuseu m would for in stancebe
per ceived asan art museum- which is quiteco nceiva ble -, then an app rec ia ble restri eti on ma y be imposed resulting fro m the
con clu sion s which Bourdieu and Darbel drew from em p ir ie re-search: for they have ascertain ed thatthat the number of visitors to art museumsin Europeismainl ylimited to graduatesfrom s e-conda ry schools, that is to say in the age group from 17 to 30. Interestin the museumhow ever, isnot simplylearn ed atsch oo l,
accord ingto theFren ch res earch ers , but isclosely relat cd to the
indi vidu al cu lt u ral back ground . If the parents are not ac-custome d to regula r visits to an art museum, the chances are
the irch ild re n willalso tak elittlenoti ce of themuseurn .f
Does th isalsoap p ly to an arc h itectu ral museum ?Itgoes without
sayingth at th iswill dep end on themuseum ' s co ncep t ion an d
pre-sen ta tio nofarch itectu re :ifit wantsto measureup to theart
mu-seu m sthe gene ralgrou pof publicuserswill diminish intoa su
b-sectio n of the ar t museum 's tr ad itio n a l group ofvisito rs desi
g-nat ed by Bourdieu an d Darbel. Andit will bea subsection, b e-ca use for man y art lov ersthe gap between painting and ar
chitec-tureisstill sogreat.
On the other hand it is anen cou ra gin g idea th at in thecase of the
arc h itec tu ra l museum ,the ge ne ra l group of publicusers may also
be ap p ro ac he d in an en t ire ly different way, namely as 'u se rs' of
arc h itec tu re . Probablyfarfew erpeoplefeeltheneed for painting
an d scu lp tu re than for arc h itec tu re . After all the built en viro n -men tisin dail y evide ncean deve ry b od y makes co n tin u ou s useof
it. Isitnot a natu r al concl us io n that thesubject ofsuc h a museum willap peal to more people ? It istruethat thearchitectural mu -seum lack stradi t ion al clie ntssuc hasare knownto the ope r a, the
sympho ny orc hestra an d the ar t museum. This isan advan ta ge
and atthe same timeadisad vant a ge. Theidea that themuseum can assem b ie its own publicisirresistible.On theotherhandth is rcalizario n puts aheav ypressure on the activities of themuseum and gives riseto the questi on astowhat theusersreall y expectof
themu seum .A manu al with instructionsfor use?
No, defini tely not. They are more co nce rned with acertain id en-tificat io nwith the environ me n t which themuseumshouldbeable to bring abou t. Simple evcryday useshould be enriche d with new mean ings. This sou nds fairl y vag ue but ca nea sily beillustrat ed : just by reprodu cin g a part of the familiar environment on a smaller scale within the wall s ofthe museum, peopl e will start
look in g at realityin anew wa y .Irthepresentationshould relat e to a situatio n from thepast ormoreparti cularly to a possible fu-ture con d it io n, thiswill onlybe en h a nc ed. Irth isevoke s theright
atmosp he re - thatis to say the at m os p h er e that fitsthetime an d
place towhichthe exh ib it refers-,then theinclusion will ope n up
cn ti re ly newspheres ofobse rvat io nan d significance .
With out any doubt the very you ng will form themost su sce p tib le
grou p. Within the gene ralgro u p ofpublicusers they moreover cons tit utethe most import ant grou p.Irarc h itectu re is ever tob c-comepopul a r ,the n itmust beincorporat ed in the ch ild re n's p er-cept ion of the environ me n t. It will often su ffice to minia turi ze reality in order to appealto the m. How ever, the presentation of
architecture may ta ke place in a much more sophistica ted m an-ner: by making use of lig h teffects, colo u rs ,all kindsof mat eriai s, and especial ly by br in gi n g thrce-dim en sional spa ce into the
20
exh ib itio n, the necessary atten tio n is attracted to establish contact bet ween ch ildrenand thei r surroundi ngs.Up to thepresent years architecturalexh ib itions paid very little atte nt ion to a you th fu l public. In spite of the fact th at their en-viro n me n t in particul aris so weilsuited to illustratingall kindsof thingsin the con tex t ofamuseum.
Tourism
Anoth erreceptivegroupistha t of the tou rists.
Introduetion to anew region is possibl ewith thehelp of guides, orga n izedexcu rs io nsorsim ply bytaki n g potlu ck. Buta museum which triestoportra y a cou n try oraregion,doesnot yet exist. In that resp ect the tourist s are le tdown by the museu m s. Why the introdu et ion to loc alculture sho uldbe lim ited toa glimpse of the Nightwat ch in the 'R ij ksm u seu m' whilst the experience of the tourists is farbroader , is a myst ery. Would you believe th at a folde rof the same Rijksmuseum ope ns with an explanationabout the museum building: 'We can be brief about the much heard questionas towheth ertheRijksmu seu m was formerly a convent, a ch u rch or a rail wa y sta tion.The Rij ksm u seu m was built as a museum in 1885by arch itect Cuype rs and has neve r been used for anyothe r purpose .'
The com pile rsof the 'Gui de Rou ge 'of Michelinareverypositive abo u t this in thevolumeon theBen elux . Everytourist who wants to go weil prep ared on his tr ip to the Low Countries considers th isguide an essen tia l part ofhislu gga ge . What does heread? 'A rt in theNethe rla nds' .
"The Neth erl ands ha ve pla yed an impo rt an t role in the field of thearts within WestEuropean culture.Sculptu reand musichave indeed been of lim ited importan ce. But the architecture (sic!), defin itelyrem ark ableinsomeperi od s, andespeciallythe brilliant painting tradition, mak e Holland into a place of pilgrimageand an inspiring coun try which can mat ch France, Ital y and Bel-giu m'.?
Her eaft er follows an elabo rate discou rse on painting - Hals, Rembrandt , Ruysd ael , Vermeer and Van Goghare treated with the necessa r ydeferen ce .Then comes:
'A rc hitec tu re'.
"T hc Netherl andspossessrem ark abl e goth icbuildings(etc.)' . Howeve r, the gu ide rej oices:'it isespecially sincethe end ofthe 19th cen tu ry that Dutch arc hitectu re enjoysan exceptional re-putati on ' .
The au thor then gives a list ofna m es of architects who deserve the atte n tio n of the respec te d rea d e r : Cuy pe rs, Berlage, De Klerk, Dudok, Oud and De Bazel. The 'Koopmansbeurs' of Berl age isnot explicitly men tio ned,as mighthave been ex pected, whereas no . 32 Vijzelgrac h t, headqu arters of the 'Alge me ne BankNed erl and ' ,design edbyDeBa zel ,is."
It may ap pear rath er stra nge that tourists who read this are not referred to a museum where they can beco m e acquai nted with this art form which ap paren tly enjoys 'a n exceptional interna-tion alreputati on '. Thereis aRijksmu seum and a Van Gogh
mu-seu m ifyou likepainting,but theart of architectureis exclu sivcIy presen ted in the stree ts. If we are not going to offer the tourists
anyt hi ng bett e r ,weshallfail. Shouldtheynot be offered theright
infra-st ructu re, also where arch itec tu re isco nce rncd?
Ther e is yetano the r fact worth mentioning. Inthesame 'G u ide
Rou ge ' det ail ed atte n tion is given to the 'conquest ' ofland from the sea. This clich é, which sorne of us consider rather ov
er-worked, mak esthereader fa ce thefa ctthat architecture isap pa
-rent lystill rest rict ed to a collec tio nof individu al buildin gs, eve n:
'cute littl e hou ses ' . Whereas in the Netherl ands it conc e rns a structu re of very different dimen sion s, namely a land reclaimed from the sea wh ich has for cen tu ries been put to well-planned use.
Unfo rtunat elythe creatio n of thepold ers isalways presented as a masterl y exam pleof technical ingenuity- a projectof diking-in , drainin g and colo niz ing : 'T he numberof roads and bridges in-creases,the villagcs and towns areprovided withelectr icity , te
le-pho ne, parks and recr eation al arcas. Woods are planted,
or-chards and cattle an im a te the cou n tr yside ; the meadows , the
fieldswith Ilowe rs,pot at oes and beets ,theveget abl e gard en s and
the greenhouses, all reli ev ethemon oton yofthe infin ite plain'.
The guidefurt he r more pointsto facilities inandarou nd thenew
lakes whic hare bein g con st ructed forthebenefit of wat ersports,
such as arti ficia lbeaches and marin a s.'C'estun paysneu f",isits
conclusion .
However, what isreall y su p posed to impress thereader are the reco rd swhich hav ebeen broken involu me , quantityandca pita !. Not a word abo u t the qualitati ve aspects of land reclamation. Art, technology andeconom icsare obviouslystillvery farapart.
Numb
ers
and structur
e
There is some expe r ience as to vistto rs. The arc h itec tu ral mu-seum inFrankfu rt amMa in fo r exam ple,which ope ne d its doors in
J
uly 1984 , cou n tedan averageof 500 to 600 visito rs per day. Mcasured against thelimited spaceof the museum (it is housed in a19th cen tu ryvilla which has beenenlargedand renovated bythe Germ a narc h itec t Ungers) ,this is quite a large am ou n t.
A number, moreover, that had not been anticipat ed and which
alterth ree years, forcesthemuseum to look for extra floor space.
Abo ut half of the visito rs to the German architectural museum
consistsof people with a profession al interest, mainl yarchitect s.
The othe r halfis of a var iab Iecom pos itio n . Therem arkablething
about th is is the appare n t prefe ren ee for visits in gro u ps. Not
only students feel this, but also politi cians , man a gers and sta ff
mem bersofhou sin g associa tio ns , thos erecei vin g com plemen ta ry
educatio n,etc.
Onemigh task whyth isis so. Bourdieu and Darbelha ve pointed
to the factthat espec ia lly peopl efromlowersoc ia l strata,who are
not in thehabit of visiting a museum , show a pronounced pr
e-feren ce for museum exc u r sio ns in groups. Unfamiliar with the phen om enon 'arc h itec tu ra l museum ' many peopl e may feel the
22
same and thisis the rea son whyfewer peopleenter the museumbythemselves.Anoth er remarkab leobservationconcerns the
fre-quen cy with which visito rs in Frankfurt come to the museum.
Since 1984 an en t irely ncw gen erati on of lov e rs of arch itecture
seems tohav e appeared who regul arl y go to the museum.
Bear-ing in mind the absenceof a tradit io nal publicfaithfully
artend-ing every arc h itec tu ra l mani festa ti on , this fact certainlydeserves
mention .
Theproblemwith the evaluat io nofnumbe rs and structure of the
publicin the archi tectu ral museu m s is th at all data have neces-sa rily been ba sed on temporary exhi b itions. There is no fixed
museumarrangementforarc h itec ture.
Parti cul arl y at temporary exh ib itions it is very important to know
whowa sresp on sibl e fo rthela y-ou t , whereand wh en the
exhibi-tion took place , an d what it was about. There is a world of
dif-fer en cebetween sa y , anarch itect u ralexh ibit io non the fifth !loor of theCentrePompidouin Pari s an d apresentation of an archi
-tectu ral museumin Hel sinki .Thismaylead to diverse, indeed to cont rast ingconclusions.
Ncverthclesswcma yassume that the architecturalexhibit ionsin
the la st ten yea rs hav e dev elop ed into inter es tin g events attract -ing largenumbe rsof sightsee rs all over Eu rope. Mu seology, at
first ra th erfeebl e , slo wly grewmature , and from simple picture-exh ib its com p lex prese ntat io ns wc re developed which can
bril-lian tlyme a sureup to any othermuseu m presentation.
This meansth at thepresentati on ofarch itecturalexh ib itionshas
becom e a matter of profession al attention, with all its con
-seq ue nc es for museum-orga ni za tion in the sphere of
manage-ment, finan cin g an d publici ty .
Mor
e
than a
lo
cal
institution
It istemptin gto conce n trateonthecrowd-drawing presentations in the architec tu ralmuseum . How eve r , in the arch itecturalmu
-seu malarger 'clie n tele' is concerncd thanjust the actualvisitors
to exh ib itio ns. Just th in k of the study packcts for schools, the videota pe lendin gdep artm en t an dothersuch services which see
to it that ed ucation pays attent ion to arch itecture.
Furthermore the museum ha s a vague assignme nt to strengthen
the con tac t between doers and th inkers. The fact that this need
not take pla ce wit h in the museu m buildingis the only thing that
isquite clearin th is ma ll e r- for doers the museum systern is
ac-tually a margin al matter, which doe s not really fit into a work
schem e of six tee n hours per da y main ly filled with reading mem os , atten di ng meetings an d making decisions. Nevertheless the museum can break out and try to reach the doers in their of -ficetewers.By offer ingapro d u ct whichlin ksup with their inter-ests the museum ca n obtain a much broad er sig n ifica nee than
would bepo ssibleif itcon fined itsel f to the preservationand pre
-sen ta tio nofmat cri al. Think ers , althoughthey too often ensconce themselves in their ivo ry tower or shut themsclves up in their
2. intertor
rif
theMuséedes Monuments Français in the Palais Chaillot, Paris. A presentation of architecturalcasts in a strictly nineteenth century manner.Smal!numberof uisitors,statie, paar accessibility.Most curious and unusual for those whocarefor that sart of thing.23
are su bse q ue n tly in te r preted by the museum and sold to the public. With one foot in the world ofthinkers and the othe r in
that ofdoersthemuseum can hav e a bridgingfunction between the two.
In the aforesaid touri sts hav e been mentioned as an im portant
target grou p for the museum. In so far as the im pression had been create d that this onlyconce rn ed foreig n visitors, it must be
said that the meanin g should be more wide ly interpreted:
everyo ne lookingforreereation when travelling througha town, region or cou n try , shou ld be included in the public group in
ques tio n. Therecr eati on al charac te r is the crite riu m .
Inwhatsense does the arc h itec tu ra l museum offeran interestin g 'prod uct' tothisgro u p? In this case a visit to the museumis nota lirst requirem ent eithe r. Tourists can often mana ge quite weil
wit hamap ofthe regionas lon g as it providestherightkindof
in-formatio n. The fact that suc h map s are as yet tot all y la cking sho u ld be ama tt er of conce rn for the museum. The smalljourn -als issued by the Arch ives d'Archi tecture Moderne in Brussels about Art Nouveauand abo ut the arc h itec tu re of thetwenti es in
the Belg ia n capita l form a good exa m ple: a map , some bi og-raph ica l da ta and othe r useful back ground information arcsu
ffi-24
cien t to geta com plete ly new perspectiveof the town. Now that large cities due to inc reasing insecu rity and inconvenience are losing moreand more of their recrea tive attraction, such initia -tives may produce a change lor the better. If the pocke ts of the towns are this wa y turned insid e out and the public discovers what tre as u res they co n ta in, the appreciat ion for urban quality maybefav ourabl yinfluen ced. And not onlythe larger towns but also thelandscape is suitabl e for suc h ancwintro du ctio n . A key map of the valley of the Hunze , on the borde r between Gro -ningen and Drenthe, ma y serve he re as a modest example of what isconce iva ble. Eleven map sections show the structure of the landscap e , providing the cyclist with an im p ressio n of the visualqualityof th is landscape and sim ulta ne ous ly with some in -formationabout thegeology ,hist ori e occupatio n-patternsand re -cen tart ificial intervention in the regio n .A more or less analogou sap proach characterizes the activities of the foundation 'A rch iv isie'. This Amste rdam foundation or-ganizes guided tours focussin g atte nt ion on the bu ilt environ -ment. Startin g poin t is the idea that we can value architecture only by expe rienci ng it in reali ty . A visit to the inside of the building, and at the same tim e attent ion to the environment in whichitisincorporated ,puts newlifeinto conceptssuch as scale, proportion, colour and dist an ce . This too is an activity which sho ws the limitati on s of the architectural museum as an on the spotactivity.
3. miniatureofNicolas vanBlarenberghe, onee the property of the eount of
.Choiseul, Minister
of
Warunder Louis Xv. Cirea 1770. The scale-modelcollection
of
LouisXIV in theTuileries, now to be admired in aneduca-tional and original setting at the Galerie des Plan-Relie], Musée de
Finally there is thehungerforinformation.Too many questions areconceiva ble abo u t the en viro n me n t to think that a museum could have all the answers. The subjects vary from tu n ne l cons tructio n to ecolog ie con trol, from architectural visions to straigh tfo rwa rd plannin gproblems, from pavingsto subjects r e-latin g to wat erman ag em en t. We might ask again: why stick to the idea of a museum building some whe re in the Netherlands with limited ope n ing hours and a modest staf/? What is need ed hereisprofes sion al serv ice, itis thesupplyof information in par-ticu la r th at isoftheut most importanceif theinterest for arc h itec -ture and physi cal planning is reall y to amount to anything. A carefully maintain ed network of suppliers of information is the most preciou spossessionof themuseum and weshouldcerta inly nev ertreatthis lightly .
Ofcou rse the museum also goes beyond the limitations of its location by issuing a magazin eor circular with which it involves peopl e in its activities, without immediately committing them to a visit. In ordertobeableto follow the de bate and to be kept in
-formed about coming eve n ts, a weil organized program me is a must. The Institut Fran çai sd'Architecturein Paris mayserveas an exam ple, its arc h itec tu ra l progr amme with a wide monthly circ ula tio n is a hand y guide book for those who seriousl ywish to beintroduced to the turb u len t worldofarch itec tu re .
It will beobviou s th a t the circleof peopl earoundan architectural museumisnotrestrict ed to thosewho actu ally visit themuseum . The circle ismuch wider; how wid edependson the initiativesof the museum itself. Thefact that there is a lot of demandfor in-form a tionabout arc h itect u re, and alsoa need for inspiringa ctivi-tiesin th is field ,willsu r prise no-ene ;peoplelook for conta ctwith their en viron me nt in variou s ways. Up tothepresent howev er, wehavebeen very ill-provided in this respect. The wayin which themuseum will mana getomeetthes edemands and desireswill det ermineits success.
26
Examples
Historie ex a m ple s
Theimpression cou ld be create d thatthearchitecturalmuseum is anewphen omenon. No thin g coul d be less true .Admittedly, up
to thepres ent day the arc h itec tu r al museu m ha s notmanaged to secu re a pla ce for itsel fwhich enab le it to measureup to other
kindsof museums , suc h as ar t museums or na tural history mu
-seu ms. Vet for cen tu riescollect io ns ofcasts, arc h itec tu raldraw -ings and models ha ve filled the museums ofEurope. A beautiful
exam ple isthe co ngea led pres ent a tion in the Musée des M
onu-mentsFrançais in thePal aisChaill ot in Paris , where the original
collec t io nofcastsofthe19thcen tu ry French arch itectViollet Le -Ducis accommodated . In theMuséedeI'Arméethe scale mod els of cit ies and fortifications from the pri va te collec t io n of kin g
LouisXIV also for m a remarkabl e exam ple, even though these
werereally intended for militarystrategiestudies.
In the eigh tee n th cen tu ry, when suc h collec t io ns were started,
peopl e had to go ou t of thei r way to study arc hi tecture. R
e-productions of bui ldingssuch as are known to us, were ha rd to come by. Peoplehad to trave l, which was a fa r less comfortable
affa ir thanit istoday; the travelIer had to take the roughwith the
smooth. But his hardships were ultima tel y rewarde d :confro nted with the actu a l creat io n s, insight into the Eu ropean bu ildi n g
tradition cou ld be gaine d .Casts werebrou ghthome by the archi -tects an d were eve n tu allygiven a pla cein themuseums.
In the 19th cen tu ry an d more particul arly in ourown time, the
revoluti on in mass- tr ansportati on , in combinatio n with the new
techniques of reprodu ction, has repl aced these old cen tralized museums with a tight network ofmonum en ts . Mon umen ts of
which the preservation is guaranteed (o r so we hop e) are now
open to thepublic andgive an idea of thelocal architectural cu l-turc ."
Rea sonin g in th is vein the 'R ij ksd ie nst voor de Monumente n-zo rg' (Department for the Preserv ation of Monument s and Historie Buildin gs) cou ld be regarded as the mo st re fin ed mu -seuminstitution in thefield of architecture, adecentrali zed arc h i-tecturalmuseummoreo ver , which is maintained with thehel p of privat einitiati ve an dwh ich isinvol ved ina cont in uo usdiscussion on thequalityof thebuiltenv iro n me n t.
Apparently theonly thing that is lackin g in th is su p pose d mu
-seu m are thepublicfuneti on s (a recentl y established foundat ion
'O pe n Monument endag ' the aim of which is to open to the
public as many monumentsaspossible for one day per year, is
Besid esthedevelopmentwhich procl aims existin g parts of towns
27
as muse u m areas, more and more initiatives have been de-veloped with the objective of findinga different way of bringing the cu ltu ra lvalue ofarc h itectu re into thelimelight. Thetangible mu seu m forarchitecture ma y for decad esha ve attract ed eno u gh atte n tio n to make ma n y people en vious , but up till the present this hasnotyet led to its actualerec tio n. Most Dutch initiatives cons ider the arc h itec tand publicist LeJiman as their great pr ede-cessor. In 1912 , hehad published an artiele in which heshow ed him sel f a warm su p porte r of the idea of founding a real archi-tectural museum in the Neth erl ands. Meanwhil e DeJong an d Ba al m an were able toexpla in into whichhistoriecon tex t this plea would really fit: the difficult situation of the 'M a at schap pij tot Bev orderin gder Bouwkunst' (Societyfor theadvancementof Ar-ch itec tu re) played an important rolein this.All this was at a time when the very same Soci ety at its premiseson the Marnixstraat in Am sterdamhad, particul arlysince 1880 ,developed acom b ina-tion ofactiv ities which accord in g to DeJong and Baalman, 'fo rm a goodcross-sec tie nof what toda y, a hundredyears later, wein -tend toundertak ein thenew arc hitec tu ral institute'.IQ
Wha tLeliman had in view wasreaUynothing unusual as to con -tent: a collectio n should be started of drawings and modeIs of mainly con te m po ra ry arch itectu re. Hehad establishe d that nei-ther in the existin g mu seu m s nor within his own professional grou p was the re much interest for suc h an initiative. For this reason heproposedtocallaspecialinstituteinto being .As hewas weU awa re of the fact th at the intended colloetion should not cou nt on alarge an deager public,he em ph as ized the eleme n t of study. By subjectin g the collected works to research, the true creativity ofarc h itec ts would be substantiated by fa cts. And a betterunderstandin gof the crea tive process of a building would grad ually mak e people rec eptive to the idea that architects are alsoartists.Even though Leliman knewthat anarchite ctu ral mu-seu m wouldnotbe a popularundertaking, he was of the opinion that a tan gibl emuseumwould bearricherrewardsthan the tem-porary arch itec tu ra l exh ib ition s which were already often or-gan ized atthat time. Moreo ver , and hewas very wellawa re of the fact, the need for a collecti ve aim existed within the profes-siona l grou p. Leliman saw in an arc h itectu ra l museum a po-tential forcewhich could bringunitywithin this discipline.
Thewaythingsusuall y go in Holland , com m issio ns studyingthe ideas of Leliman followed eac h otherin rapid succession. With -ou tresu lts howevcr . !
Vet ,in 1955 th is finally led to the esta blish m en t of the 'Stichting Architectuur Museum' (Foundation Architectural Museum) (SA M) which had as itsobjecti ve the gathe r in g of documents on arch itectu re. In spiteof the rel ati velylat estart theenterprisea p-peared to be very successfuJ. But again things did not go smoo thly. Finan cial problems forced the foundation to turn to the govern me n t. In thebeginnin gof theSeventi esthelatter off -ered toset up theDutchDocumen tationCentrefor Architecture, tobe assig ne d to theGovernment Dep artmentfor the Pr eserva-tion of Monuments and HistorieBuildings.This Documentation Cen tre was to beresponsible for theactivitieswhich would
gua-28
rant ee the accessib ility of the collec tio ns which had in the meantime been assembied. The Foundat ion Archi tectural Mu-seum would henceforthconcentrate on fundraising with theaim of continuing the policy of collecting and making a sta r t on aseriesofexh ibitions. Theculminati on of thedivision oftas ks b
et-ween the governmentand SAM consisted without any doubtof
the fourexhib ition s dedicatedto arc h itec tu re , which wereheld in 1975 in various museums, includingtheDocumentation Cen tre. From the 'Stich ting Goed Wonen ' , esta blishe d in Amst erd am , a
new foundation was formed in the ea rly seventies, called 'Stich t-ing Wonen ' .This foundation undertook to rousea generalint er-est in architecture and town planning, in particul ar in the c
ir-cu m sta nces underwhich the environmentcou ld be orga n ize d in a more democratie way. With the aim of stimulating peoplein their ideas about the en viro n me n t , it plann ed man y feasible outlinesfored uca tio nalprogrammes.The foundation soon ca me to be known as an ex pe rimen talcen tre of innov ative activ ities whichwerein harmony with thespiritof the times oft he post- ' 68
period.
Notso longago an 'Architecture ' sectio n was esta blishe d within
the 'R otterda m se Kunst Stichting'. This sect io n showed great ene rgy in the organization of frequently much-discussed eve n ts in thefield of architecture. It started out with an inv ita tio n to a
group of in tern a tio n all y famous critics to express their op in io non the quality of thepost-war arc h itectu re in Rotterd am.The great success of this manifestation stimulated the secti on to con tin ue along thc lines of organizing provocative eve n ts. Notably in the
framework of Architecture Intern ation al Rotterd am (A I R) ac -tivities were developed which showed that public deb at e and large-scal e man ifestationcould immensely stim u la te architecture
as a whoIe .
Contemporary exam
ples
The establishmentof an architecturalmuseum in Frankfurt am Main in 1984 heralded a new era. It was contended that this
would be the first new-style architectural museum, not to be
compared to the existing institutes which called themselv es
mu-seu ms. These were rather to be defined asarchives or libra ri es
thanas museums.The DeutschesArchitekturMuseumappeared
to beclearingthepath for new 'real' museums in the field of ar
-chitec tu re . lts motto : temporaryexhibitions in spect a cul ar s
ett-ings. Theid ea beh indit waspartly practical:to start yetagain on a collectionin 1979,theyear in which preparation sfor ther eali-zation of the museum were started, was al most impossibl e orat least too costly. By emphas izingpost-war architectureand s how-ing this to thepublicin short-term exhibitions, it would bep
os-sibleto borrow thework ofco n te m po ra ry architect sfor the dura-tion of suc hexhibitio ns.
However,thechose n formulawas also based on matters of prin-ciple: the currentsituation within architecturedem anded att
en-tion and, according to the director Heinrich Klotz, the best way to bring improvement into th is situation wasto conceivethemu -seu m as a meetingplacean d platform for professional discussion.
Some people see the museum in Frankfurt as a fascinating
galle ry. In asen se wehaveto concedethis point. But on theother
handthemuseum misses the experimental qualities of the gallery
by emphasizing international heroic arc h itectu re. The chosen se t-up reminds us in many ways of the marmer in which
mu-seu m s of modern art are at present manifesting themselves, that is to say, that the emphasis is on the displ ay of 20th century ob-jectswith a special preferen eefor avant-garde-movem entswhich
ap pe al to the imagination; otherwise there is a partiality for
'p iece s' of high quality,connected with famous names; contacts with the outsid e world bear witness to strong international orientation ; the attitude of com m itme n t is very striking. The fixation in Frankfurt on temporary sensationalexh ib itio n s, some of which give surveys of the latest trends, intensify this impres-sion eve n more.
The situation in England sharply con t ra sts with that in G
er-man y . In London no trace is to be found ofan y museum
pre-sen ta tio n of arch itec t ure . With the excep t ion of the H einz-Galle ry in Portman Square there is no building where people
cou ld get the impression of being in a museum for architecture.
Even theHeinz-Gall eryis nothing but a dark room of modest di
-mensions with a high ceiling, situ a te d on theground floor of the building wheretheRIBA DrawingsCollection is also housed. Of course there is thedrawings collectionwhich demandsrespect in
every sense . But this is not to be em b edd ed in any museum conception.Herethercis theremark abl eatmosphereof a famous
arc h ival institution where one ca n expe r ien ce the great love of
collecting. This doesnotmean however,th at theBritish situation
as a whole is inferior to any other. Exhibitions such as those in theRoyal Academyon thework of thearchitects Foster,Rogers an d Stirlingarestill inconceivabl ein theNeth erlands.12
Furthermore there are nowadays sev eral private galleries in London wherear ch itectu r e is presenred.TheHeinz-Gallerymay hav ebeenan innovation, in themeantimemoresuch institutions hav e come into being.
Whereas the German architectural museum is, in spite of its
name ,alocal initiativewhich has for the greater partbeen paid from urban funds, the Drawings Collec tion is part of theBritish
assoc ia t ion of architects ,the Royal Instituteof British Architects.
This partly exp la in s the differ en ces in ap p r oach . Moreover, when one reali zes the differences in ageof the two in st itu t ion s , thenervous expe r imen t in g in the onean d the'good old' tradition in theotherinstitutearealso understandable.
In Brussels the situat ion is completely different again. Hereno less than three institutions hav e found accommodation, all priva tely establish ed, with different functions an d sep a rate sta ff, butat thesametimeworking in close cooperation.
Since1969 theArchivesd'ArchitectureModerne, shortly AAM,
have been estab lish ed in the Belgian capitalor mor eprecisely in
30
theRueDefacqz.This foundati on ap plies itsel f to theissu e of an architectural jou mal and particul arl y to collect ing docu me nts, drawings and books on mod ern arch itec tu re ('mo de rn' mean in glat e 19th and 20th cen tu ry) . Several hundred s of tho usands of
documents hav e al ready been collected. Probl ems of co nserva-tion, classification and restoration of documents, butalsoof f re-quent consultation , led to the foundati on of the Musée des
Archi ves d'Architecture Mod ern e in 1983. Furth erm o re , a
FondationpourI'Architecturewas found ed three yearslate rand
served as a complement to the Archives and the Museum . The
Foundation, esta blishe d within a sto ne' s throwof the Museum ,
hasasitsobjectiv e the reali za tion ofa confrontation of id eas,to
revivethe arch itectu ra l debate and tobring th is with in the circle of a bro ad er pu blic.Particularlylarge exh ib itio ns will beneed ed
to realizetheseobjectives.
The exa m ple of the Brussels situ a tio n sho ws tha t the careful interweavingof the many functionsof an arc hitectu ra l museum , eve n when itis dispersed ove r differentbuildings all ove r town, maylead to successful gro wth towards a mature state .
Independ en ce , an open mind to new ideas, the knowled ge that preservation of documents shou ld be lin ked with presentati on s of
the material, with publications and research , and that this will
even tu ally also lead to new donati ons , mak e the institution s seriou s ca nd id a tes for finan cial subsidies and spo nsoring. Perhaps it does not seem as spectacular as what is go ingon in Frankfurt; yet it is a remarkablyambitious undert akin g . Closcly connect ed with theBrussel sinstitution s ,not least due to thepresencewithi n theorganizationsof MauriceCulot,isthe In-stitut Françaisd'Architecture, or IFA in Paris. Since its es tab-lishment in 1981, the Fren ch gove rn me n t has en trusted this in -stitute with the promotion of archi tecturewithin the home coun -try. I t is notthe colleeringactivitieswhich come first in thiscase -these hav e already been tak en ca re of; the institute fu nc tio ns mainl y asameeting place andfor the exc ha ngeofideas.lts
facili-tiesconsist in rough outlineof an exh ib itio n spa ce , alibrary and
an in fo rmation bulletin . The IFA isespecially oriented in its
ef-forts towardsstimulation of othcr organ izat io ns in thei r workand coord ina tio n ofall acti viti esin thefield ofarch itecture.TheIFA
doesnot pretendto bethenati onalarchitectural museum .
The samegoes, moreov er,for theArchitecturedep artm ent ofthe
Cen tre Pompidou , a dep artment which is accom mo dated at the
Centre deCreation IndustrielIe .The large arc h itectu ra lexhi bi -tionswhich areregularlyorganized byth isdep artm entdonot yet makeit in to a museum;there are no collec tio ns, thereis no per -manent presentation , it does not functi on as a meetin g place .
Nevertheless thc architectural exh ib itions, which are organ ized by thc CCI, are very successfu l, they mobilize on average
200.000 people ever y time(Le temps desGares, Images et Ima -ginaires d'Architecture, Plai sir d'Architectu re) ; Vien ne fin de
siècle , in which a lot of spa ce was dcvoted to arch itecture, even drew on average 6000 visito rs dail y! And it is especia lly the younger generation, originating from the middle classes, fo r
offer a substantial contribution to the generalizationof interest in
3
1
architecture among a wide public, which makes them more thannoteworthy.
It is tempting to dwell here on the professional method of the
CCI. The organization of architectural exhibitions is not an ama-teurish activity, it demands special talents. Proof of th is is
provided in Paris.We are acutely confronted with the question as
to how successful, really popular architectural exhibitions are achieved. What is the right concept? What should be displayed and what should not? And even more important, how should the selected material be exhibited? Many questions are imposed on
us; they lead back to complicated, almost philosophical
problems, all related to the statement that architecture is to be
found outside in the streets. Within this frame of thought it is
important to be aware of the field of ten sion between the opinion that the exhibition should in the first place convey a message, and
the one based on the proposition that the exhibition is a world in
itself.
Of course the danger that architectural exhibitions should be
-come independent phenomena which lose contact with the
practice of building and designing is not imaginary. On the other hand it may be argued that the independent significance of the
architectural exhibition is as yet too rarely acknowledged. It is
precisely such exhibitions which offer the possibility to break
loose from the exhibits and which can support theatrica l effects
better than other museum arrangements. Or, as Jean Dethier
puts it, architectural exhibitions should offer more visual delight
to their visitors. Vet all too often they are repulsive because of
their dullness, because of an excessive attention to design or
ina-dequate staging. Compelling exhibitions not only demand the
total dedication of well-coordinatedteams of specialists, but they
also need the availability ofla rge budgets. This in turn demands
an approach whereby right from the start the possibility of travel is taken into account in order to be able to spread costs. Such an approach is typical for the French architectural exhibitions. A
condition of their success is a well functioningnetwork of contacts
between the various architectural museums all over the world; something that is now developing at a modest scale between the Chicago Art Institute, the Paris museums and the Deutsches Ar-chitektur Museum. Is such an international network really in preparation? With the establishment of ICAM, the International Conference of Architectural Museums, a platform has been
created where information can be exchanged and in itia tives can
be geared to one another. The value of these kinds of bodies can hardly be overestimated, the least they can achieve is to establish the impression with the outside world that architectural museums have a right to exist. But a network?
This self-imposed question leads to Finland. According to 20th
century standards the oldest architectural museum in the world is inHelsinki.PIt was founded in 1956 and is, moreover, one ofthe
most respected architectural museums. It shows how a creative
32
problem with the museum in Helsinki is th at theFinnish gov ern-ment sets its stamp too heavily on theactivitiesof themuseum , as this forms part of the strategy to export Finnish des ign.lt is precisely in an international network that everything re-volves around the combination of independenee and collec tive endeavour. ltserves no purpose to put too muchem p has ison the national character of acultural institution as it has to functi on within an international world economy.
lt is after all only two hundred kilometers from Amsterdam to Brussels, twice th is distance to Frankfurt, hardly one hour' s flying time to London, 500 kilometers to Paris.Since theSecond World War Northwestern Europe has changed into an urbanized landscape where problems of shortage of recreativespace, viola-tion of the landscape and the preservaviola-tion of monuments and historie buildings, problems of fast growing mobility, of indus-trialization and for several decades of a revolution in information and communication, compete for precedence. Why then should we hold on any longer to theexa m ple s of nationalarch ive sas the sou ree of exhib itio n material? Take as an exa m ple Heinrich Klotz, who says about the collection he accumulated in Frank-furt, that his aim was to start an architectural collection at an
4. interior of the Musée des Archives d'ArchitectureModerne, 86 ruede I'E rmitage, Brussels. Theright atmospherefor a documentarymuseum: limited accessibility,designedforstudy and research, but at the same timea presentation of the collection whichshould bemouth-watering to ma'!)'a collector.
easily accessiblespot in thecentreof continentalEuropa, making
33
it possibl efortoda y' sinternational arc h itec tu re to besubjectedto
a com parativestudy.:"
These words cou ldeasily be expla ine d as apIca for far-reac h ing
cen tra lizat ion.Butwha t isreall yneed ed ,isa network of cult u ral
eentres - a coord inated decentralization approa ch - con fro n tin g
the Northwest ern-Europ ean population in a penetrating fash ion
with the great problems rela ted to its te rritory .
A mus
eum
for obs
ervation
and action
Once we co nside r theworldasthecontext of thisEuropean m
e-galopolis, it is onlyashort ste p tothemuseumof Patri ekGeddes.
Geddes, a Scotti sh biologist who lived from 1854 till 1931 , be
-lieved that the future ofmankinddep ended to alarge exte n t on
the solut io ns which it could develop for itsspatialproblems.He
was anecolog ist-ava n t-la-Iettre, con vinee d of the propositionthat
only the balance between culture and nature was in harm on y
withthe intention s of the Creator. He sawsoc iology, whichin his
time was cons ide re d anyth ing buta ma ture science , as a useful
instrumentin the union of allsocial scien ces.
Within theframe wo rkof th isstudy Gedd es ' ideason themuseum
areofespec ialimportan ce .Geddeswas a child of the great World
Exhibi tions which created such a stir in the second half of the
19th century in Eu ro pe and later also in Ameri ca . Inspired by
these, he conside re d the mu seu m institutions as an acti veweap on
of civilization in the struggle forwhat he called 'civ ics' - real e
i-tizen ship , or rather Cu ltu re.
Although Gedd es used the museum as a place whe re he could
ven tila te hisidea s abo u t the cu lturaldevelopmentof alocal com-munity , itwas not solely for this reason that heso emphati call y gave evide nce of his love forthemuseum ;he saw the ab ility to
grasp a region or a tow n as the preparati on of thefuture,and a
visit to the museum would stir those conce rn ed into realaction.
Ged des wasone of those exceptionalperson alit ieswho manage to
com b ine keen obse rvat ion with deliberat e action. Every inh
abi-tant, he said, sho u ld be aware ofhow his re gion actually fits to
-gether. Not only was it a ma tt er of gathe ring knowled ge abo u t
the na tu ral resou rces, the beau ty of the landscap e and the cu ltu ra l herit a ge , but also: abou t poverty , crim in ality and in-justi ce . Every citizen should carefully study all these things in
ordersu bse q ue n tly to separa te goo d from evil. Such behaviour,
accord ing to Ged des, wou ld only bepossibl e when peopl e could
actually 'see ' . How , he asked himself, could so meo ne conce ive
th is world, not to menti on: improve it ,if hewerewithoutliving
visualcon tact with thethingssurroundinghim?
Geddes' museum differed from the previ ousl y mentioned ex-amples in that it did not limit the subj ect of museum att en tio n
strictly to arc hitect ure in the narrow sense of theword. Gedd es
bro ug h t all possibl e informati on and ideas re garding a town or
regionwithin thewallsof themuseum.The fact that in thisway
