Fragmentation, Spatial Coherence and Circulation in Museum Architecture after 1990
A Comparison between two distinct Examples of Dutch Museum Buildings
H. Çatalbaş (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
J.S. Zeinstra – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
This study investigates how the Groninger Museum (1994, under the direction of Alessandro Mendini) organizes fragmentation and cohesion through its plan and circulation. Although the museum is often discussed as an iconic example of postmodern architecture, the relationship between fragmentation and spatial organization, with regard to the architectural discourse of the 1990s and the present, has been little studied.
The comparison with the Kunsthal Rotterdam (1992, Rem Koolhaas / OMA) shows how
architectural fragmentation can be integrated into a coherent spatial system. The Groninger Museum organizes fragmentation through autonomous pavilions and authorship; the Kunsthal creates cohesion through a continuous system of circulation and infrastructure.
In both buildings, circulation functions as an organizing principle that structures fragmentation while simultaneously facilitating the relationship between the building and its context. The comparison reveals two strategies for transforming fragmentation into a coherent whole: collage versus continuum and authorship versus system.
By placing these two projects in dialogue, this study emphasizes how architects in the early 1990s explored new approaches to spatial organization beyond the modernist ideal of unity.