Capturing interfaces between museum architecture and exhibition design: a critical inquiry into museum space concepts

When we make museum exhibitions, we always do this in a particular architectural space. The question of how we deal with the aesthetic interrelations between museum architecture and exhibition design is, however, a contested one. Whereas some museums completely integrate architectural interiors and (permanent) display design, other museum interiors function as more 'neutral' containers, taking the shape of 'white cubes' and 'black boxes'. This article will investigate how the interfaces between museum architecture and exhibition design can be traced in current museum space conceptualisations. By focusing on three approaches to museum space that have been highly influential during the last decades, space syntax analysis, narrative approaches and the concept of atmosphere, this article will explore how museum space conceptualisations have integrated versus separated architectural and exhibition spaces, and how they have managed to capture the material interfaces between them.