Page 59 - Beyond Decommissioning

40 Beyond Decommissioning

construction models and layout arrangements. Museums and heritage places remind
us that humans are part of a cultural continuum, which we have a responsibility to our
children and grandchildren to preserve.
Many museums have been located in heritage places. This approach has been gen-
erally successful in that it puts the building to good use and enhances the meaning of
its contents. However, in other cases, the combination of museums and heritage places
forms an uncomfortable partnership, which benefits neither. Just because a building is
old, it should not necessarily become a museum.
These public buildings provide an invaluable service to the communities in which
they are situated; from the above-mentioned commemoration to education and even
the provision of public space, museums are communal “beacons” of which architec-
ture is an essential component.
Buildings such as factories and workshops can be redeveloped as heritage sites. In
this case, the building or the site becomes the artifact or collection on display and the
museum’s goal is to tell the visitor the industrial story of the building and the people
who lived or worked in it.
The major challenge for this kind of museum centers on how to guide people
around and provide the infrastructure to manage the museum without damaging its
heritage integrity.
Industrial heritage buildings are available in various forms and sizes and include
interalia: lighthouses, power plants, train stations, railway sheds, and workshops
(see Chapter 6 for case studies). Sometimes a building becomes an obvious choice
for a museum because its contents on display refer directly to its original use. How-
ever, in many cases, the choice of building is based on other factors, usually availabil-
ity and economics. Often the building is chosen because it has a recognized heritage
value, which is considered compatible with the site. There are some advantages in
using a heritage building to this end:

l An acknowledged heritage building has already a role in the community. This can be impor-
tant for a building needing community support for its survival.
l Heritage buildings can enhance the interpretation of historic displays by providing a proper
appropriate physical setting.
l Many heritage buildings are soundly constructed and provide a stable physical and climatic
environment for their contents.
l The ambience and spaciousness of buildings, such as power plants and railway infrastruc-
ture, greatly encourage movements and participation of the visitors.
There are, however, disadvantages in converting heritage buildings to museums,
including:
The costs of adapting an existing building for this new use and the routine maintenance costs
l
can be hardly offset by the financial returns offered by the museum.
The risk of worsening the building’s integrity and heritage value in the conversion is not
l
negligible.
l In some cases, the type of museum envisioned may not be suitable for the candidate building.
A contemporary art space, for instance, could hardly be the right candidate for a one-
room hut.