Peanut Butter Cup Principle

This idea came up again several times at the MAAM Building Museums Symposium last week. Which is sometimes a sign that I should finally write it down. I hope it’s useful.

When we simultaneously design a museum and the core exhibitions in it, it’s like making a peanut butter cup. 

The building is the chocolate; the exhibitions are the peanut butter. Both contribute to one experience, like the two ingredients that make a peanut butter cup.

But peanut butter cups aren’t made with normal peanut butter or chocolate. Both are formulated with the other in mind, or you don’t get a peanut butter cup. You could try, but normal ingredients don’t taste right.

A new museum building should be designed knowing what exhibits will be in it, not judged on its own. It’s formulated for a special purpose.

Good exhibitions should be designed with the architecture in mind. Just like that special peanut butter. 

Here’s the thing:
Museum buildings and the core exhibitions in them are like a peanut butter cup. Both ingredients make one experience.

The trick is that both have to be specially formulated, each designed with the other ingredient in mind.

Warmly,
Jonathan

P.S. Miss the Sunday digest? It’s offline for mysterious technical reasons. Hoping to have it working again soon.