Newseum: cultural renovation projects

With sustainability firmly on everyone's agenda, it’s little wonder that architects' focus has been shifting to renewing, reusing and transforming the buildings that already exist around us. There are few places where this more evident than museums and galleries. Often seen as landmark projects both literally and metaphorically, museums often attract big budgets that allow architects to take a snapshot of the current state of architecture.

In Antwerp, KAAN Architecten has renovated the neo-classical Royal Museum of Fine Arts. As well as restoring the existing architecture of the building to its former glory, the architects have chosen to clear the gallery's courtyards of auxiliary structures, recasting them as new exhibition spaces in their own right. Wholly white, monumental and with marble inlays, voids bring light deep down into these new galleries through two floors of smaller, more specialised exhibition spaces at the top of the building.

In Berlin, David Chipperfield Architects had to take a step back when renovating Mies van der Rohe's masterpiece, the Neue Nationalgalerie. Despite minimal changes to the building's iconic appearance, this was no simple renovation. Indeed, the architects had to disassemble 35,000 original internal fittings, including the iconic stone panels, in order to reinforce the gallery's concrete shells and technical services, before putting them back exactly as they were. The architects also created an additional lift, ramp and cloakrooms, improving the visitor experience with almost zero visual impact. Similarly, the building's transparent skin was upgraded to boost its thermal performance by developing a new, but closely related, set of contemporary details.

On the other hand, even more humble existing structures can be transformed into engaging exhibition spaces. Roarc Renew's TaoCang Art Center in the eastern Chinese city of Jiaxing is located in two granaries from the 1950s. Restoring the brick and concrete granaries and adding a decorative terrazzo floor depicting lotus flowers, the architects have added two symmetrical pavilions which emanate like energy lines from between the two original structures. These accommodate the reception, café and other functions, while also rising to form a new monumental volume that serves to alert passers-by to the museum's presence.

In Manchester, in the north-west of England, architecture studio Carmody Groarke have completed the Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry. Inserted into the five-metre tall brick and iron vaulted undercroft of a vast Victorian warehouse, the architects have tried to preserve the industrial ambience of the space, while creating a welcoming new entrance to the museum. The entrance space is panelled with warm, backlit fibreglass panels, the colour of which complements the original building's bricks, while the exhibition spaces beyond feature more neutral white walls.

© Architonic