ABSTRACT
The design of the museum building – the intelligible circulation and interconnection between large halls, long vistas, smaller and more intimate rooms – acts as a primary but tacit device for visitor induction and orientation. If one is interested in the way in which the elementary human affordances of space can serve as building blocks for the creation of cultural meaningfulness at a higher level, then the museum is an ideal case study. In this chapter, I ask whether Space Syntax – a descriptive theory of the affordances of space that underpin its human and social functions – can tune the design imagination to intentionally mold spatial affordances to bring forth desirable morphologies of experience and meaningfulness. By asking this question, I seek to counterbalance and complement the idea that research influences design by providing knowledge that is neutral relative to design intent. Models of the human functions of built space can of course be applied to the evaluation of designs. Design inspiration and design evaluation, however, are two different things. The question is whether analytical concepts can help formulate design intuition and design intent in the first place.
