Enhancing visitors’ experience in historical museums through applying parametric roof designs

Abstract

Previous research indicated that museums have historically prioritized their formal and physical features at the expense of accommodating visitors’ needs which has negatively affected visitors’ museum experience. A shortage in interactive spatial experiences in some historical museums in Egypt led to a decrease in the rate of visits and visitor’s satisfaction. Museums’ interior design has a significant impact on people’s emotions as well as their museum experience. Furthermore, prior research has indicated that parametric design can convey emotional interactive spatial experiences when applied to different interior design elements. Such elements can include the building’s roof, floor, or walls. This research aims to create a set of guidelines for enhancing visitors’ emotional and interactive spatial experiences in historical museums using parametric interior roof design solutions. The research adopted a mixed method approach. A qualitative approach was implemented by reviewing the precedent literature. This was followed by a case study in the Egyptian context and a computer-generated model of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was developed. Two parametric roof alternatives were tested along with the existing roof of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo by using Virtual Reality on a sample of 67 participants. The quantitative approach was achieved by distributing questionnaires among participants and analyzing the acquired data. The results showed that the application of parametric designs could develop interactive relaxing or engaging museum spatial experiences. This study could benefit architects, interior designers, and relevant specialists in the design process to enhance the museums’ spatial emotional interactive experience by using parametric design.