From progressive to labyrinthine: Testing formal variations of an exhibition space typology

The galleria progressiva is a type of exhibition space emerged after the French Revolution whose architectural configuration is characterized by sequentially uninterrupted spaces that generate specific sets of linear events and has the potential to guide visitors relying more on the building geometry than on symbolic or guidance artifices (Bennet, 1995; Sutton, 2000). Consisting of a deterministic museum configuration by nature (Choi, 1997), the interest relies in investigating if and to what extent such type would allow for a visiting experience capable of encouraging visitors to explore and experience the museum while still strengthening its social nature. This idea is the core of an on going PhD research focusing on visitors’ engagement in museum spaces, having led to previously published studies (Rolim et al, 2017; 2018) on two iconic examples of progressive galleries, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (Frank L.Wright, 1943-59) and the Museum of Unlimited Growth (Le Corbusier, 1939). These works examined differences in route alternatives and ability to generate a more exploratory visit in both layouts, casting light on how they could promote a less tedious visiting experience. This paper focuses on analysing the influence of visual field and spatial layout in hypothetical variations of the progressive gallery. Starting from a purely progressive condition (an uniaxial, uni-convex space, allowing for full visual field reach), whose configuration and metrics were borrowed from both reference projects, this space starts to be transformed, first transversally, by altering the shape of its walls (from rectilinear to sinusoidal, chamfered or niched), conforming a multi-convex system, as in Wright’s upper ring-shaped galleries. The walls are also displaced longitudinally in staggered conditions. Afterwards the layout is no longer crossed by a single axial line, which leads to losing visual information on the non-adjacent spaces and conforming a labyrinth-like condition. Further increasing complexity, similar to the Guggenheim’s renovation in 1990’s, the transformation of the gallery is gradually increased by introducing spatial cells as an alternate system, parallel to the former one. In order to examine these progressive to labyrinthine configurations, we will perform convex, axial, VGA, and agent analysis, comparing the findings pertaining to such variations, and their relationship with the matrix configuration in the Guggenheim museum, as well as site observations performed at the site. By addressing how spatial configuration influence on route options, visual fields and visitors’ movement trails, the goal is to bring light on a relevant type of exhibition space, testing its ability to either reassure its condition as a purely deterministic system or point towards hybridized versions of it, potentially able to better facilitate a more exploratory visit. We hope that, rather than achieving robust results, this stage of the research allows to broaden the understanding on the morphology of the progressive gallery, setting the analytical procedures and launching clues for further steps in the studies on visitors’ engagement in this museum typology when we will add the use of augmented virtual reality in the hypothetical layouts tested here.