Alessandro Orsini
Co-founder, Architensions
Nick Roseboro
Co-founder, Architensions
The Museum as New Publics: The House-Museum
Some of the world’s museums are housed in former residences, or homes, of wealthy families of the past. In New York, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, The Morgan Library & Museum, and The Frick Collection are some examples of collections amassed by these families and displayed in their original settings, their homes. These museums are less encyclopedic, and the collections are tied to the history of the people who once inhabited them. This two-day workshop will visit one of these institutions, analyze their spaces, and ask students to map the existing domestic space and counter-map the current public spaces to envision thresholds of alternative uses. How can these former homes retain their original domestic functions while serving as museums and using their domesticity not as a display of wealth but to share resources for the commons?
