Why museum expansion is the drug architects just can’t quit

Christopher Hawthorne | Punch List | 15th August 2025

What comprises “good” museum design? For some decades, the answer seems to have been ‘bigger is better’. Blame for that can be shared–museum directors wanting a bigger brand, ambitious donors, governments seeking tourists. All that ignores the long-standing criticism that museums are places “artworks go not to live but to die”. They should aspire to be “cultural incubators [offering] encounters with authenticity“. Sadly, there is no spreadsheet function to optimise for that.