어린이박물관의 공간구성 및 위계 분석 기초 연구

Abstract

(Background and Purpose) As the Korean government is expanding its cultural infrastructure and services, such as museums and art galleries in various region, the number of museums has increased in recent years. Among them, children’s museums have unique characteristics, and over the last few years, their demand continues to rise because of the limitations of public education. The demand for research on children’s museums is also increasing as they specifically target children. However, most studies limit their analyses to the status of such museums, and research on other aspects has been insufficient. Therefore, this study aims to establish primary data for designing children’s museums in the future by analyzing their spatial configuration and hierarchy. (Method) The spatial hierarchies of national and public children’s museums were analyzed by circulation using j-graphs and spatial syntax. Through this process, the characteristics of the floor plan of children’s museums were derived, and the accessibility and user recognition of each spatial component were analyzed. Among the national or general public museums, the museums that are above-average size (approximately 4,500 ㎡) opened after 2000. (Results) This study obtained the following results. 1) Children’s museums generally have a high proportion of common areas, which indicates that they are in significant locations in terms of the traffic flow. 2) The J-graph of children’s museums generally showed a ring-type space with strong social functions. Although this structure is suitable for nurturing the social skills of children, shallow ring-types with low spatial depth were considered more appropriate for children with low spatial awareness. 3) Convex spaces with high connectivity are important positions in the circulation or traffic flow. As such, common areas and experience centers with high numerical values in children’s museums occupy major positions in the traffic flow, which shows that experiential elements are significant design factors that also facilitate social communication. 4) The common areas and experience centers of children’s museums were highly recognized, accessible, and connected. Accordingly, when designing future museums, education opportunities, children’s experiences , and the role of common areas are key factors that should be considered. (Conclusions) This study contributes to the literature by conducting spatial hierarchy analyses according to the spatial configuration and circulation structure of children’s museums to derive accessibility and user recognition data for each spatial component in the museums, thereby constructed primary data that is useable in many fields. However, this study’s method was limited by analyzing only the floor plan and structure without observing how people visit and tour museums. Therefore, further studies should apply various methods to build on the findings for improving museum design.