In my opinion, architecture can “determine” how different individuals experience the materials and exhibits that are housed in a museum. I think that it is possible for a persons visit to a museum and what they get out of that visit to be influenced by the architecture of the museum, however I do not think the architecture of museum always has an influence in “determining” what an individual experiences when they view museum materials or exhibits. There are several examples of this idea that I have experienced in my own personal trips to museums.
One experience where the architecture of the museum did not in someway “determine” my experience of the museum materials was at the Lava Butte National Park Interpretive Center, which is located in the Lava Butte National Park about 15 minutes south of Bend, Oregon. Granted, the interpretive center of a National Park is considered to be a museum in the sense that it is a large in size and has many exhibits, however it is still a museum. The physical building of the interpretive center was quite plain. The visitor enters through the gift shop and signs in then can proceeded either to a theater where speakers can make presentations or to a large square room that holds all the exhibits and displays. The simple architecture of the museum, in my opinion, did determine what my experience with the museum materials was going to be like. This was mainly due to the fact that I did not pay much attention to the architecture because it was so plain and simple, and therefore, I could focus all of my attention on the exhibits inside the museum.
There are also times when the architecture of a museum has influenced how I viewed the exhibits within the museum or how I experienced the exhibits within the museum. I experienced the influence that museums architecture can have in determining how a person views the objects of the museum when I visited the Experience Music Project, better known as EMP in Seattle Washington. The building that EMP is housed in is itself is quite large and imposing. It is ornate and designed in a very stylized manner. When I view pictures of the building that EMP is in, I am immediately struck about how “modern” it looks and how the design and layout of the building is very much a testament to what popular culture determines as being “cool,” “hip,” or “in style”. The architecture of the building that EMP is housed in determined how I viewed the objects it held within it, in that before even entering the museum I already had a belief that the objects inside were important because they were housed in this amazing building. I perceived the physical building of EMP as being incredible and an amazing example of modern architecture. My ideas about the building being incredible and an amazing example of modern architecture transferred over to my preconceived opinions of the objects that the building held within it. I thought that the objects inside must be of extreme importance to the development of music and the pop culture that goes along with music because they were being held in a building like the one that EMP is in. Simply by being housed in the building that EMP is in, the objects in the museum took on more importance to me than they might have if they had been housed elsewhere.
While I do think that architecture can have an influence on how individuals view museum materials and the exhibits within the museum, I do not think that this is the case all the time. People tend to be more influenced by “grander” forms of architecture, such as architecture that is large in presence and grand in appearance. In addition to this, architecture has a greater effect on some people than it does others. Some people might see EMP as a hideous building, whose design and layout does not fit into the neighborhood where it is located. While others view EMP as an excellent example of modern architecture and as an achievement in design and construction. I think that the impact that the architecture of a museum has on someone is very individualized and the not everyone is going to be affected by the architecture, if they are affected at all, in the same way.
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