Research on the welcoming experience of the museum's arrival space

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many public places, including museums, which have experienced unprecedented situations, such as lockdowns and reopening with physical distancing requirements. Therefore, physical museums’ welcoming experience for visitors warrants greater research attention today. The entrance gate, foyer, and surroundings are areas that people must touch and pass through to enter the museum. To increase museums’ popularity and attract people from the very start of their visit, museum authorities must consider the appearance and the environment of the space where people first arrive when entering the museum. Therefore, this study proposes the arrival space as a new concept to examine how to create a welcoming arrival space in museums. By analyzing the Hintze and Earth Halls in London's Natural History Museum, the design principles of a museum's welcoming experience are described from a space design perspective as a reference for future museum development.

KEYWORDS:

• Museum design
• arrival space
• public space
• welcoming experience
• museum attraction
• space assessment

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been successfully completed without the careful help and academic guidance of many people, who we would like to thank: Dr. Wang Qi, Dr. Laura Hanks, Prof. Jonathan Hall, and Dr. Didem Ekici from the Architecture, Culture and Tectonics Research Group at the University of Nottingham; Dr. David Francis from the British Museum; Mr. Dan Wormald from the Natural History Museum in London; and Dr. Adam Smith from Nottingham Natural History Museum.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Xuesen Zheng, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sifan Guo

Sifan Guo is a lecturer at the Department of Architecture at the School of Architecture and Design, China University of Mining and Technology. She has been engaged in research on public spaces, especially museum architecture and exhibition design. She has participated in several national and international design projects, including those at the Shenzhen Mangrove Museum in China and the Dinosaur of China Exhibition in Nottingham.

Xuesen Zheng

Xuesen Zheng is a Ph.D. scholar from the Human Factor Research Group of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham. He specializes in public space design and urban regeneration in cities.