Rethinking Art Museum Spaces and Investigating How Auxiliary Paths Work Differently

Abstract

It has been recognized that one of the key issues in designing museums is the interaction between the layout of space and the layout of objects, and spatial configurations are strongly related to didactic narratives, social implications, and curatorial intentions. However, it has not yet been examined thoroughly how museums work from a spatial perspective. Apart from the layout of objects, spatial configurations play an important role in creating various walking sequences, ranging from main routes to auxiliary paths. Art museums in particular can be characterized by such deviations generated by the auxiliary path, but they are hardly understood from this aspect. Therefore, this study aims to explore the auxiliary paths and examine how they work through in-depth theoretical analysis based on space syntax. By analyzing four art museums in terms of isovist attributes, syntactic measures, spatial sequences, and possible trails, it has been concluded that in the cases of the Uffizi Gallery and the Moderna Museet, spatial sequences work conservatively, so that auxiliary paths are channeled back to the gathering space. This is because the walking experience is strongly correlated with visual syntactic features such as connectivity, integration, and intelligibility. Conversely, walking sequences in the case of the Centre Pompidou and the Alte Pinakothek work generatively, and auxiliary paths are rarely related to the gathering space because the walking experience is strongly concerned with visual geometric properties such as isovist area/perimeter and occlusivity.