A critical survey of contemporary museums, as well as a reference in the field of architecture. The book analyzes the design and production of museum complexes all over the world in the last decade, and gives a critical interpretation of one of the most challenging subjects in the recent architectural panorama. The author organizes 89 designed and mostly built museums through a series of critical categories each introduced by a short introduction: Essential, Monolith, Archeology, Insert, Overlapping, Theatre, Context. The work of the most important contemporary masters such as Alvaro Siza, Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Massimiliano Fuksas, Renzo Piano, Steven Holl, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind crosses the most recent research and experiences in the world of museum's. The works of emerging architects such as Tezuka Architects, Mansilla & Tunon, Asymptote, Diller + Scofidio, Delugan Meissle, UN studio, Michael Maltzan, and many others shows clearly how museum design became a fundamental field of research on the changing nature of the public spaces as well as on the relevant relationship between landscape and architecture.