Definition & Types of Museums

As for the final year, it is required to submit a graduation thesis. The title selected for my thesis is “Museum”. It is very honorable to have an opportunity to design something which is magnificent and significant for a country. Nowadays, everyone is chasing after trendy things and losing interest in history and art. A place where everyone will be able to learn these things again is required in this society. With better support, people will become eager to study history and art once again.

Some architectural projects such as bus-stop design, guest house design, nursery school design and apartment designs were accomplished in the last semester. The title, “Military Museum” is chosen for the following objectives –· People need to give more attention on history and culture. To fulfill this purpose, museums with better architecture and more organized data are required.· People need to step back into museums instead of spending all of their time on social media or entertainment. · To broaden the citizen’s knowledge of the military history of our country.· Aim to build the country’s monument which the citizens can be proud of.· Making people understand how a military operates and realize how it is important for a country.· To always appreciate the country’s heroes and special incidents. · To preserve the country’s military history and share to next generations.· To archaize museums and boost the interest in history and culture.· To get tourists’ attraction.· To show people how great the standard of the country’s armed forces are.

A military museum, which displays or emphasizes the history of Myanmar Navy from ancient times to nowadays because its history and process are not well-known among citizens in the comparison to the history of Army and Air Force. The history of Myanmar Navy needs to be archaized.· The presented military museum will offer facts and knowledge not only with pictures and sculpture but also with some activities as visitors can be bored of history without some interesting events.· Unlike most of the museums in Myanmar, open-air areas, resting areas and food stalls will be provided for visitors’ convenience and recreation.

Museum is a place where valuable knowledge can be gained at once. It is a non-profit institution for public, exhibiting the historical or cultural heritage. Museums encourage us to learn the past and make better in the future. It is an institution which preserves the material evidence of the human race, culture and history. Museum and its architecture represent the country’s standard.

(Lewis, 2017) claimed that the word, “Museum” was derived from the Greek word, “Mouseion” that meant “seat of the Muses” and specified as a philosophical organization or a place for discussing and observation in Roman times. During the 19th and most of the 20th century, the word “Museum” is used to indicate a building housing cultural material to which the public had access. Later, as museums continued to respond to the societies that created them, the emphasis on the building itself became less dominant and museums or study with outdoor environment like open-air museums, eco museums were established. Furthermore, virtual museums exist in electronic form on internet. Although the virtual museums have opportunities and benefits to the existing museums, they still need depend on the processes such as collection, preservation, and clarification of materials and facts made by the real museums. Museums have a long history, dating back to Ancient Greece. Many early museums were private, established by wealthy individuals, and later made public.

There are several types of museums in the world to be classified. Basically, there are (18) types of museums as following: ·

Aquariums· Anthropology Museums·

Art Museums·

Botanic Gardens·

Children’s Museums·

Historic Houses·

History Museums·

Local and State History Museums·

Military Museums·

Nature Centers·

Natural History Museums·

Science and Technology Museums·

Sculpture Gardens·

Transportation Museums·

Visitor Centers· Zoos.

Phayre Museum(Naing, 1980) claimed that the first museum of our country is called Phayre Museum. It is named in honor of Sir Aurthur Phayre who was selected as a commander of Bago Division. In 1871, the Phayre Museum was built in the gardens of the Yangon Agri-Horticultural Society where Yangon General Hospital is situated nowadays. Bagan Archaeological MuseumAccording to (Department of Archaeology and National Museum, 1997), Bagan Archaeological Museum was established near Ar Nandar Pagoda in Bagan in 1903. It was the first museum after Myanmar had been taken over by the British. In 1942, the artifacts of this museum were buried in order to prevent from destructions in the Second World War. After Myanmar had repossessed the independence in 1948, the Ministry of Union Culture was established in 1952 and started trying to reopen the museum.

The Bagan Archaeological museum was reopened in 1945. Museum collections increased and a new octagonal-shaped museum had to be built in 1979. In 1995, the present Bagan Archaeological museum was established in 1995 and opened to the public on April 17,1998. The Earliest Museums of MyanmarOne of the earliest museums of Myanmar, established in Hmawza Village in Pyay, was the Sri Ksetra Archaeological Museum. In the 1900s, the Epigraphy Department explored and collected antiquities within the area of Sri Ksetra and between 1907 and 1910, a small building called Thayet Taw Museum was established near the ancient palace site of Sri Ksetra to store them. After it was burnt down in 1915, Kyaukka Thein was constructed as the first museum of Sri Ksetra in 1915. The current museum building near Kyaukka Thein Museum and the Monastery Museum was built in 1960.

One of the earliest museums in Myanmar is Myauk-U Archaeological Museum.Another early museum was established in Shwebo in 1904. At first, the Indian government provided fundings but later it was difficult for it to stand permanently. Now, it has been substituted by the Shwebonyadana Palace Museum, built in 1994 and opened in 1999. Another early museum was located in Mandalay. It was established in 1905 in Mandalay Palace City and called the Mandalay Palace Museum. It is totally different from the present Mandalay Palace Museum, because its collection, comprising objects related to the Palace and various other artifacts, was destroyed by fire because of bombing during the Second World War. (Naing, 1980)National MuseumAfter regaining independence, the National Museum was opened at the Jubilee Hall Building on the Shwedagon Pagoda Road in June 1952.

The collection gradually increased and in 1957, the Royal Lion Throne was moved from the President’s Residence to the National Museum and exhibited there. In 1968, it moved to a building in Pansodan Street, which was a former private bank, and it was opened to the public on February 8, 1970 with six exhibition rooms. Twenty-five years later, the National Museum moved to its present location on Pyay Road, Dagon Township in Yangon, and was opened to the public on18th September, 1996. (Naing, 1980)

(Giebelhausen, 2006) suggested that collections of war materials became popular during the colonial period as the power of the armed forces increased. Armies were ruled by the royals and noblemen in the colonial period. After battles, the treasure and loot from foreign lands illustrate the power of the King and his armies. In the earlier times, war materials are only displayed as the symbols of powerful military and loses or defeats were excluded.According to (Dresden, 2012), warehouses of weapons known as armories were exhibited to emphasize the heroic sacrifices and unforgettable battles showing the brave spirit of soldiers serving their lives to protect the country in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

During the late 19th century, nationalism and democracy encouraged the western world museums to turn out to be more formal. Armories were transferred from simple warehouses to formal exhibition where the rooms and other conditions were already suitable to exhibit the museum objects properly.Due to World War I, there were changes in the military strategies. These changes made people understand more about wars and what it meant for a society. The need for a collective identity to let the generations know what had happened and a memorial place for the heroic soldiers. This would eventually lead to the formation of military museums. (Szacka, 2013)(Malvern, 2000) commented that countries began to develop bigger museums, committed to the military history of the nation instead of local collections.

The Imperial War Museum in England was created to honour the dead and the lived experiences of people who suffered from the horrors of World War I. It was the first museum created for memorializing a war in its entirety. England was among the countries struggling to deal with its losses during World War I, and became concerned with creating some sort of physical and memorial record of the terror. (Hacker, et al., 2013) stated that he United States also felt the need to recognize pieces of its own history while Europe was the primary location for World War I memorials and museums. With the end of World War II, military museums grew exponentially in Europe and in the United States. They became places to celebrate victory and remember the sacrifices. At the end of the 20th century, communities had temporal distance from major World Wars and military museums became tourist centers. They have become tourists’ attraction till nowadays.

Humidity and temperature (Littlefield, 2008) claims that he control of the relative humidity, temperature and air pollution of areas in the museums (For example; exhibition areas, collection storage, and conservation, display and photographic work areas) need to be taken into consideration. Full air conditioning is necessary to handle climatic extremes, and to ensure proper temperature and moisture.Air pollutionSeeking information about local air quality is required to decide whether air filtration system is necessary or not. If it is needed, it should not be the electrostatic type, as it can lead to damaging ozone levels.

David Littlefield, claimed that museum lighting is a complex subject. It is important to determine a balance between natural and artificial lighting. Direct sunlight should not fall on any collection item. Chemical changes can occur in vulnerable materials due to direct sunlight. Thus, UV radiation must be effectively eliminated from all light reaching a collection item. The maximum light dosage recommended for different categories of collection item is shown in the following table. These dosages are achieved by limiting the level of illumination on collection items during visiting hours. Sudden changes in lighting levels and extreme contrasts of brightness in the field of view should be avoided as the eyes have only a limited ability to adapt to changes.

According to Littlefield: ‘The transport of sound through structure should be controlled. Functional zones should be provided with surface or sub-surface materials that dampen impact sounds and isolating cavities to interrupt the structural transmission of sound. Noise levels should be controlled within zones by appropriate choices of material finishes on floors, walls and ceilings, and the shaping of interior spaces to prevent flutter and unwanted amplifying effects. To generalize and simplify, the penetration of low-frequency sound is lessened by structural mass, of middle frequencies by diffusing and absorbing surfaces, and of high-frequency sound by the elimination of small- scale air gaps in doors, windows and partition walls.’

Firstly, the Defense Services Museum was opened in Yangon on 24th March, 1994 and it is moved to Naypyidaw on 18th November, 2010. It was situated on the corner of Shwedagon pagoda road and Panthra road. It was three-storeyed building with six booths. Its total area was about 100000 square feet. The Defense Services Museum was formally re-opened in Zeyarthiri Township in Naypyidaw on 18th March, 2012. Along with the instructions of the chiefs of the government, choosing site location, deciding site plans and designing buildings are performed in February, 2010. Its total site area is 603.68 acres.

There are six booths for Army, three booths for Navy, three booths for Air Force, three Guest Lounge with corridors, rest halls and souvenir shops. The independence struggles, historic battles and actions of the Armed Forces since its birth in 1945 till now are exhibited in this museum. Theatres are provided for each field to explain its history in short movie clips.

Open-air space for exhibition of Army has the area of 10.58 acres. The pathways are made up of concrete and objects are railed with steel railings.Open-air space for exhibition of Air Force has the area of 9.87 acres. A lot of types of military planes are shown and visitors can observe them from their cars as the ways for traffic are also provided there.Open-air space for exhibition of Navy has the area of 9.87 acres. Some types and models of military ships and weapons are displayed.There are (3) monumental statues of the Army, Air Force and Navy between two main gates. There is a water fountain with the area of 20.25 acres in front of the booth A-1 constructed for visitors’ recreation. Moreover, there are (4) pools, (2) stone gardens and (4) car parking areas with the capacity of (300) cars. For landscaping, over 400 thousand of trees and plants are grown in the area of 316.41 acres. Corridors are constructed for wheel chairs to be able to travel from one booth to another. Three elevators are placed in booth A-6, A-11 and A-12 for elders, unhealthy visitors and visitors who have to use wheel chairs. In order to preserve materials of the museum and for the visitors, comfort, the whole building is accessed with (502) air-conditioners.

According to (Ontario Cast-In-Place Concrete Development Council, 2018), the Canadian War Museum is established on 8th May, 2005. It is located in Ottawa. The owner of the museum is Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. The total cost of the construction is $115 million. It took (2) years to complete building the museum. The building emerges from the bank of the Ottawa River. Its rooftop is draped mostly with a blanket of grass. Due to its expressive power, concrete was chosen to be the chief building material for the Canadian War Museum. Concrete is used as both the structure and the finishing for the building. The building is constructed with tilting planes that intersect with one another; some at dramatic angles and some that are barely visible. There are concrete walls that emerge sharply from sloped floors at 3° to 31° angle. The sloping and colliding planes demonstrate the tension and revolution of war. The construction of sloped walls was a challenge to the formwork contractor who had to devise diagonal braces to support the walls after the formwork was stripped. Without the braces, the walls would not be stable. The extensive steel buttresses and tension cables need to be used.