Building Culture

"Julian Rose builds a compelling and optimistic argument for museums as rare remaining sites for architectural creativity amid a world of optimized sameness. Layered within these striking interviews is a story about the human element of museums: the architects, artists, and publics-as well as engineers, artisans, curators, mayors, funders, and more-who bring to life these hotly debated cathedrals of culture."
—Melanie Kress, senior curator, Public Art Fund

"Museums have been at a crossroads since their inception in the eighteenth century. Inevitably associated with the colonial nature of power, they have not only constituted a space for representation and domination, but also for questioning the way in which we understand history and perceive the world. Through a dialogue with the architects who have more intensely redeveloped the programs for this type of structure in the twenty-first century, Building Culture by Julian Rose offers a luminous and profound analysis of the limitations and potentials that architecture-as a collaborative practice-maintains in the present. Undoubtedly a book museum professionals and enthusiasts alike should read."
—Manuel Borja-Villel, former director of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid

"As the artist Donald Judd wrote in 1993, 'There is no neutral space, since space is made, indifferently or intentionally, and since meaning is made, ignorantly or knowledgeably.' Julian Rose's Building Culture takes as its premise the question of how museum architects make meaning-and how architecture impacts one of the most fundamental experiences of museum-going: the ever-changing cultural, historical, and political relationships between subject and object."
—Caitlin Murray, director of the Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati

“Julian Rose has written a fascinating and perceptive essay that analyses the evolution of the art museum over the past fifty years. His insights are based on a series of rich and revealing conversations with many of the architects whose vision has reshaped our expectations of the museum. This combination of analysis and testimony will make Building Culture an essential and continuing source and a vital contribution to our understanding of the iconic role that museums play in contemporary society.”
—Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, 1988–2017

“Julian Rose builds a compelling and optimistic argument for museums as rare remaining sites for architectural creativity amid a world of optimized sameness. Layered within these striking interviews is a story about the human element of museums: the architects, artists, and publics—as well as engineers, artisans, curators, mayors, funders, and more—who bring to life these hotly debated cathedrals of culture.”
—Melanie Kress, senior curator, Public Art Fund

“Museums have been at a crossroads since their inception in the eighteenth century. Inevitably associated with the colonial nature of power, they have not only constituted a space for representation and domination, but also for questioning the way in which we understand history and perceive the world. Through a dialogue with the architects who have more intensely redeveloped the programs for this type of structure in the twenty-first century, Building Culture by Julian Rose offers a luminous and profound analysis of the limitations and potentials that architecture—as a collaborative practice—maintains in the present. Undoubtedly a book museum professionals and enthusiasts alike should read.”
—Manuel Borja-Villel, former director of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid

“As the artist Donald Judd wrote in 1993, ‘There is no neutral space, since space is made, indifferently or intentionally, and since meaning is made, ignorantly or knowledgeably.’ Julian Rose’s Building Culture takes as its premise the question of how museum architects make meaning—and how architecture impacts one of the most fundamental experiences of museum-going: the ever-changing cultural, historical, and political relationships between subject and object.”  
—Caitlin Murray, director of the Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati 

“Julian Rose’s Building Culture is a generous and fascinating collection of conversations with architects that have shaped and contributed to the intricacies of museum experiences as we know (and seek) them. Rose’s curiosity offers unprecedented accounts from some of our time’s most defining voices and invites rigorous reflection at the intersection of visual culture, architecture, and museum studies. Building Culture is also a potent reminder of the essential role of oral history, in providing us with more nuanced understandings from the perspectives of the makers and thinkers behind the spaces we share.”
—Daisy Desrosiers, David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Director and Chief Curator, The Gund at Kenyon College