Museum Typology - An Outline of Architectural History

The museum as a built structure has a long history. Commencing with the first statue courtyards of the renaissance, Paul von Naredi-Rainer, an expert on museums, discusses the development of the museum genre through the centuries. While individual elements, like the rotunda or gallery, were repeatedly employed in earlier periods, the second half of the 20th century was marked by a remarkable expansion in architectural variety. The diversity of museums today ranges from refined minimalism through to richly endowed symbolic expressionism. The museum has simultaneously developed into a place of interaction and encounter.