Design has been playing an increasingly important role in the initial stages of establishing new museums. It determines the structure of the new building according to functional, technical and budget limitations. It also affects how the public areas are to be organized most effectively and how the museum will relate to its surroundings and, in particular, the environment.
This trend has been developing over a long time. The traditional concept of a museum was that of a static, closed structure where more or less valuable objects were duly stored and displayed. The exhibits constituted the antithesis of daily existence, thus the visitor was always distanced from them. Nowadays, museums are viewed as an integral part of the social and urban structure and the barriers between the visitor and the objects are taken down whenever possible.
This is where design comes into play. Favourable conditions must be created in order for this new concept to be implemented. There must be space to allow effective communication between the visitor and the objects. The hiatus between the past and the present, and what is dead and what is alive must be closed.
Pluralism is another important characteristic of modern museums. This embraces both pluralism in the exhibits or themes and pluralism in the social mix of the visitors. There is increasing recognition of the moral responsibility of museums to make the educational and cultural potential of each exhibit accessible to the greatest number of people. To this end there is growing recourse to different didactic techniques such as audio-visual displays.
Dynamism is also important to museums nowadays. No longer do the exhibits sit in glass cases or on display stands. They have been moved into an active relationship with the public and both visitors and exhibits are protagonists in the common cultural ground of the museum.
Instead of isolating the object from the visitors, museums are seeking to establish a direct relationship between them. Sometimes they go to the other extreme, isolating the visitor from the objects and allowing the latter to take on a primordial, active role within the museum.
These points serve to present, in general terms, the conceptual and programmatic bases at which Macau's Maritime Museum should consistently aim in the future. This institution is privileged to have such a perfectly legitimate socio-cultural space to occupy in Asia. Recently it took its first steps with the opening of a small part of the Museum in a temporary site in a building on the Largo do Pagode da Barra.
This first step facilitated the structural and functional restoration of a residential building from the Forties. It was in an advanced state of decay but now it can once more take its place along the Largo. It also provided an opportunity for the concepts mentioned earlier to be put into practice, concepts which will be developed and improved when the future, permanent building for the Maritime Museum is under construction.
Translated by Alorino Noruega
*Architect in charge of Macau's Maritime Museum
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