Rounded buildings meant to mimic the stars and planets make up the new Shanghai Museum of Astronomy by Thomas J. Wong and Ennead architecture. A glowing oculus at the entrance tracks the movement of the sun.
Courtesy Shanghai Astronomy MuseumArchitect Thomas Heatherwick carved concrete tubes that once held grain into a dazzling lobby at the Zeitz MOCAA, which opened in 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa. The first contemporary art museum in Africa, it showcases works by sculptors, photographers, and painters from across the continent.
Photograph by Paul Langrock, ZENIT, Laif, ReduxFrank Gehry was inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night painting when he designed the Luma Foundation in Arles, France, which opened in June 2021. The combo contemporary art museum and cultural center towers 180 feet above the small French city known for drawing Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and other painters. Some critics believe it is too overwhelming in size for the surrounding geography.
Photograph by Patrick Aventurier, Abaca, Sipa USA, AP ImagesA sister museum to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the V&A Dundee opened in 2018 as an outpost for Scottish craft and design. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma used glass and concrete slabs to summon Scotland’s cliffs; an innovative dam holds the river back from the ship-like structure.
Photograph by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesIn Dubai, the Museum of the Future is due to open in late 2021 in a fiberglass-and-steel form covered in Arabic calligraphy. It will hold exhibits on design and technology innovations, and the exterior will glow via LED lights at night.
Photograph by Giuseppe Cacace, AFP/Getty ImagesA standout addition to Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture opened in 2016. Architect Thomas Adjaye shaped the building like a Nigerian tribal crown and covered the façade in aluminum fretwork mimicking iron balconies in New Orleans.
Photograph by Lexey Swall, The New York Times, ReduxFrank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao Museum was a game-changer when it opened in 1997 in Spain’s Basque country. Its swooping forms and reflective surface set a new standard for what contemporary museums could look like and how they could transform a city’s identity.
Photograph by Gonzalo Azumendi, Getty ImagesThere are no straight lines in Baku, Azerbaijan’s Heydar Aliyev Center. The undulating, curvy structure by the celebrated late architect Zahia Hadid shelters a museum on the country’s history and culture.
Photograph by Jane SweeneyDaniel Libeskind created the 2001 addition to the 1933 Jewish Museum in Berlin, spatially reckoning with the Holocaust and its legacy of absence, loss, and invisibility via empty rooms, dead ends, and dim lighting.
Photograph by Pierre Adenis, Laif, ReduxAlberto Campo Baeza designed Granada’s museum of Andalusía’s history and culture by centering a simple, almost stark three-story building around a playful circular courtyard. Elliptical ramps rise to connect the different levels.
Photograph by Wim Wiskerke, Alamy Stock PhotoIn the town of Helsingør (home to a castle that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet), this innovative, subterranean museum shows off ships, navigational equipment, and other nautical artifacts. The Bjarke Ingels Group planned the series of glass-walled galleries and industrial walkways.
Photograph by Hufton+Crow, Alamy Stock PhotoAt the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), the architects at Bernardes + Jacobsen linked a Baroque palace, a police building, and a bus terminal via a wave-shaped roof and a walkway. The resulting contemporary art showplace hosts exhibits and performances.
Photograph by Robert Harding World Imagery, Getty ImagesAn early example of “inside out” design, the contemporary art museum in Paris features exposed ductwork, exterior escalators, and a pop sensibility courtesy of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano's 1971 plans. Its rooftop restaurant boasts some of the best views of the city.
Photograph by Frank Heuer, Laif, ReduxArchitect Frank Lloyd Wright was planning out New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the 1940s, dreaming of buildings shaped like seashells. Wright died shortly before it opened to mixed reviews in 1959; the modern and contemporary display space is now considered his masterpiece.
Photograph by Massimo Borchi, Atlantide Phototravel/Getty Images