Museums for the Future, Futures for MuseumsMuseums for the Future, Futures for Museums

To mark the publication of his latest interview collection, Imagining the Future Museum: 21 Dialogues with Architects, cultural strategist András Szántó will lead a panel discussion featuring the architects Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ), Ma Yansong (MAD Architects) and Winy Maas (MVRDV). Together with Anne Kremer (director of the FENIX Museum of Migration), they will envisage the architecture of future museums.

After talking to museum directors about how museum ‘software’ changes with social and technological developments in his widely read book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues, Szántó now explores the ‘hardware’ of the museum with architects. In his latest publication, he talks to both established names behind world-famous museum buildings and the up-and-coming talents who will help to shape the museum of the future.

If these designers get their way, how will museums look in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time? How will they function, and how will they make their visitors feel?

Guest speakers at the book launch at Nieuwe Instituut include three designers interviewed by Szántó for the book who have a direct relationship with the city of Rotterdam: Kunlé Adeyemi (NLÉ), Ma Yansong (MAD Architects) and Winy Maas (MVRDV). Museums for the Future, Futures for Museums will consider MVRDV’s design for the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, which opened in 2021, Adeyemi’s plans for the floating pavilions set to appear in Nieuwe Instituut’s ponds in summer 2023, and Ma’s spectacular panorama deck atop the historic Katendrecht warehouse where the Droom en Daad initiative FENIX Museum of Migration will open its doors in 2024. FENIX director Anne Kremers completes the panel. András Szántó will talk to the panellists about creating these current museum designs in the Netherlands and about imagining future museums worldwide.

András Szántó

Kunlé Adeyemi, Winy Maas, Wim Pijbes, Ma Yansong

• 19:00: Doors open
• 19:30: Begin programme
• 21:00: End programme

Museums for the Future, Futures for Museums is an event in the Book Launch series begun at the start of 2023, in which Het Nieuwe Instituut and NAi Booksellers invite authors and editors to showcase their latest titles in a festive yet in-depth manner.