Is design only fit for the museum?
Amid a welter of media coverage about the creation of a new £80m design museum in Kensington, one of the original Design Museum’s founders has raised questions about the future of design itself...
In an opinion piece in the Telegraph newspaper, Stephen Bayley speculates that both design and the concept of the museum as a physical space may be in terminal decline. “The original Thames-side site in Heseltine’s ‘Docklands’ […] was intended to stimulate interest in a then neglected area, an advertisement of ‘design’ as an agent of beneficial change. Yet the new location on Kensington High Street may confirm cynical suspicions that ‘design’ is only a specialised branch of shopping.”
He contrasts the waning power of design in the 21st century with his and his co-founders’ conviction in the 1980s that the discipline was of vital importance to the economy. “The old beliefs that ‘design’ can transform industries are under severe test,” he says.
Bayley speculates that soon the physical museum may be rendered obsolete by technology. “André Malraux used to talk whimsically about a ‘museum without walls’: soon, it will be with us. I confess that if we had had apps in the Eighties, we might not have built a solid concrete museum housing a collection of objects.”
He ends on a note of optimism however, with the comment that the 21st Century Design Museum will “adapt to new realities and change perceptions once again”, showing that the reports of the death of design are greatly exaggerated.
We want to hear what the landscape profession thinks about these issues. Is design dead? How might a museum (physical or virtual) go about curating landscape design or design in its broadest sense? Post your answers in the comment section below this article or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Space cannot just be “appreciated” it has to be “experienced” it goes beyond our 5 senses.
Practicing landscape architects all exhibit our “pieces” in our collective global museum, the environment that we live and work in!
In order to appreciate this wealth of experience we just have to be aware and have a need to use these places.
Well designed Functional spaces have the ability to connect with any community or environment - the interpretations and creative possibilities are endless!
We just face the challenge of embracing a new era where technology is key to informing our clients and users about the environments we create, to foster the ‘connection’ between people and place in new ways.
Surely there is an “App ” for that?
Agree wholeheartedly with the above, landscape design ‘exhibits’ are out there for all to see. My view is that ‘design’ is not dead but has evolved into a much more sophisticated discipline. We now have to respond to, and incorporate into all our designs, the needs and demands of local communities, climate change, flood risk, diminishing budgets etc. As multi-skilled professionals we rely on the LI to ‘showcase’ our best designs via the Awards and the website. Technology is key. We already have the potential to generate a ‘virtual museum’ by opening up and digitising the LI archives, with or without an App.
Are we really to believe that the Design Museum is to be responsible for eliminating the outstanding landscape which famously fronted the former Commonwealth Institute building, designed by one of our most important and influential landscape architects, Dame Sylvia Crowe? If this illustration is to be believed we get yet another fountain-scape… “Design matters”, Apparently not…
The Design Museum is, in my experience, a museum of consumer items or brands. As such the objects are not “one offs” they are ubiquitous and may be as reasonably “consumed” on the web as in a glass box at Butlers Wharf or Kensington. The Design Museum represents a culture of the global generic consumerism, it’s probably not such a bad thing if it doesn’t have a physical footprint.
The “Museum” more widely, is a very particular archetype which has increasing value as a destination and cultural hub, (just try finding space at the Natural History Museum/Tate Modern/British Museum any day of the year). It is probably a more significant cultural, educational and commercial asset now then it has ever been.
A landscape practitioner’s role in this heritage/education context must be to make the museum an adjunct to the uniqueness and specificity of the destination. The destination, assuming that is what draws the visitor, cannot be replicated nor consumed virtually in any meaningful way. This is why the modern pilgrimages are to unique and authentic places where museum facilities are secondary facilities and their purpose to reveal the genius loci, that, and it’s interpretation, is what this discipline is about.
So landscape as a cultural consumable is more important than ever, the museum will continue to facilitate this.