The Cabinet of Dr. Linnaeus-The Reemergence of the Wunderkammer as a Counterpoint to Established Museum Architecture

The Cabinet of Dr. Linnaeus seeks to show a temporal progression beginning with the Natural History collections of the nobility of Europe being realized in established Museum Architecture, only to return again to modern Chambers of Wonder. Exhibiting a time line that begins with great expeditions of the late Renaissance the introduction offers an overview of Wunderkammern, Chambers of Wonder. These chambers originally housed great private natural history curiosities, and these collections and buildings through the centuries became increasingly thought of as educational and public, primarily through the development of the sciences. Subsequent late Twentieth Century examples show the Wunderkammer paradigm formalized in three distinct forms: museum architecture by Austrian architects propeller z, a Wunderkammer established within a revered modern museum and its inspired architecture by Renzo Piano, and personal Wunderkammern located in private residences. In the process of expounding on Wunderkammern, transcendence from the private to the public realm can be traced, along with new indications of artists and laymen closing the circuit in the creation of their own private chambers of wonder, infusing the spaces with a miraculous nature once again.

Volume Editors
David Covo & Gabriel Mérigo Basurto

ISBN
0-935502-57-2