Design Approaches to Museum Open Spaces with User Evaluations

Abstract

The concept of the museum today should be considered as a social communication platform, and museums should be designed by taking into account the interaction and harmony of their open and closed spaces with the immediate surroundings. This study emphasizes the importance of museums for the city and discusses design approaches to museum open spaces with examples of their effective use and an evaluation of the opinions of their users. In order to shed light on today's museum exterior design approaches, evaluations of the design setup of the museum open spaces were carried out on the basis of literature research and spatial experiences of the museum examples visited. In addition, using the content analysis method, by creating statements about usage, satisfaction level, and expectations, a questionnaire was planned and designed to be applied to a volunteer user group. According to the examples given and the survey data, museum open space designs were carried out. Four groups of factors - planning and design, social, functional and perceptual-having the greatest impact on visitor satisfaction were identified. The examples given include a discussion of museum open space facilities, along with commentary from the literature. For the evaluation of the users, a survey was conducted with 74 people. The survey asked about their satisfaction levels and their expectations in terms of museums and open spaces. Since there was not chance to conduct face to face survey in pandemic conditions, the study was conducted that questioned the general qualifications. In addition to reaching the users visiting the museum were limited. When we look at the literature, multi-dimensional research has been carried out on museum architecture and design. However, no comprehensive study has been carried out on museum open spaces. Consequently, this study focused on the interaction between museum open spaces and visitors.