Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization has held international events on September 27 to mark World Tourism Day. For World Tourism Day 2023, UNWTO underscores “the need for more and better-targeted investments for people, for the planet and for prosperity.”
António Guterres said in an official statement, “Today, the climate emergency is threatening many travel destinations and the very survival of communities and economies that depend on tourism. And many developing countries that are severely affected by a changing climate are also facing a growing investment deficit and a cost-of-living crisis.” He added, “On this World Tourism Day, we recognize the vital need for green investments to build a tourism sector that delivers for people and the planet.”
Many architects started using modern and sustainable methods to design museums and galleries. For World Tourism Day, we picked 10 modern museums around the world:
ABC Museum
Architects: Aranguren & Gallagos Architects
Location: Madrid, Spain
Aranguren & Gallagos Architects designed the ABC Museum, which is a drawing and illustration centre, with the goal of making it the cultural symbol of Madrid and an international art center. The architects at Aranguren & Gallagos turned an old factory building into a modern museum building without changing the building’s history.
More than 200,000 works by 1,500 artists are on display at the ABC Museum. The museum’s collection is mostly made up of drawings and paintings, but it also has some works by contemporary writers. The museum’s main goals are to keep and show off the ABC Collection and to make a wide range of cultural events. The goal is to make the museum a lively, creative, and active place by putting on temporary art shows, workshops, conferences, and debates, among other things.
China Yellow Sea Wetlands Museum
Architects: DuShe Architectural Design
Location: Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China
The China Yellow Sea Wetlands Museum was made by DuShe Architectural Design in the year 2021. The space in the traffic building and the space in the exhibition building are both of the same type. At the train station, the tall waiting room and platform space would make great exhibition space.
Around the world, people have been putting old train stations to other uses for a long time. After the Yellow (Bo) Sea Migratory Bird Habitat was added to the World Heritage List, Yancheng needed a way to show wetland culture to the rest of the world. The brand-new wetland park is right next to the train station. After being turned into a wetland museum, it became a new place where Yancheng wetland culture could be seen.
Hubei Science and Technology Museum
Architects: CSADI Architects
Location: Wuhan City, China
The Hubei Science and Technology Museum is located in the core area of the East Lake National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone in Wuhan, where Jiufengshan Forest Park and the Optics Valley Government Service Center of the East Lake High-tech Zone are gathered. It is a landmark urban public space in Wuhan’s East Lake High-tech Zone. The venue integrates exhibition and interaction, visit and experience, learning and entertainment, and science and art, and it is currently the largest science and technology exhibition base in Central China.
Huzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Museum
Architects: Perkins+Will
Location: Huzhou, China
The Huzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Museum, which was designed by Perkins+Will, shows how it thinks outside the box and works well with others. A talented group of professionals worked on the project, which was led by well-known architects James Lu, Jason Hsun, and Leo Li.
The Huzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Museum is huge, with a floor space of 15,600 square meters. It combines great architecture with the beauty of Huzhou’s natural surroundings. The museum was designed with the fluidity of water and silk in mind. It has offices, a conference center, and classrooms where people can learn. The museum is in a lush green area and has amazing views of the beautiful mountains. It is a well-known cultural landmark that reflects the city’s long history.
Qintai Art Museum
Architects: Atelier Deshaus
Location: Wuhan, China
Designed by Atelier Deshaus, the Qintai Art Museum is located at Moon Lake in the Hanyang District of Wuhan City, China. The 43.080 sqm art museum’s curved roof follows the topography and defines a square that will interact with the Wuhan Library and Drama Center.
The ramps connect the square to the cafe; the roof terrace works even after the museum is closed, strengthening the building’s relationship with the city. The museum entrance and cultural venues are positioned on the square side of the inwardly curved façade. Some of the exhibition areas are underground to reduce the weight of the mass in contact with the lake’s surface. The roof surfaces, which curve in the direction of the lake, rise on the side that turns to the city and adapt to the organic texture of the city.
Comico Art Museum Yufuin Annex
Architect: Kengo Kuma
Location: Oita, Japan
The Comico Art Museum Yufuin Annex was designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates. It is on the banks of the Oita River in Yufuin, which is one of the most famous hot spring resorts in Japan. Its purpose is to show contemporary art. The main building looks like a Satoyama village because it has a sloped roof and a wall made of burnt cedar wood. Sharp aluminium-faced volumes break up the horizontal shape of the main building and throw off the overall order of the project. This large diagonal volume connects the ground garden to the roof garden.
From there, you can see the work of famous artists like Yoshitomo Nara, Mariko Mori, and Ko Nawa. Also, the sharp silhouette of Mount Yufu in front of the building keeps the project’s three-dimensional flow going.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
Architect: Ennead Architects
Location: Shanghai, China
Ennead Architects did a great job of designing the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, which is a modern-futuristic and immersive museum that links to the past and shows the long history of Chinese astronomy and space exploration. Visitors to the Shanghai Astronomy Museum are taken on a steady date with real astronomical events.
As the design curves, swirls, and cuts in awe-inspiring sizes, flamboyant shapes, and streaks of natural light into the building’s interior, it gets bigger and more impressive. Based on a study of the basic relationship between the sun and the earth’s orbit, the architects came up with a new way to show the sun’s different expressions. The new astronomical branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is the largest museum in the world. It is 420,000 square feet and is all about astronomy.
Museum Of Pop Culture (MoPOP)
Architect: Frank O. Gehry and Associates
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture), which was first called the Experience Museum Project (EMP) and was built between 1995 and 2000, was designed by Frank Gehry. MoPOP is a museum that is right next to the Space Needle in Seattle. Its architecture shows how creative and innovative American music culture is. Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, came up with the idea for this experimental museum step. It is a project that uses technology, media, experience, and activities to help music culture grow. Paul Allen was inspired to start this project by the famous guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
