An exploration of the impact of museum architecture on the visitor experience and understanding of national identity
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Minimal published research exists to date on the nature of Saudi Arabian national identity and its relationship with architecture. To address this, the present thesis focuses on the themes of nation-building and cultural heritage as lenses through which to study the concept of national identity as manifested in the architecture of Saudi Arabia. The central case-study involves a visitor-focused analysis of The Saudi National Museum (SNM), which was established in 1999 as part of the King Abdul-Aziz Historical Centre in the Saudi capital city, Riyadh. This study is motivated by two related research questions: (1), What do we mean by ‘national identity’, and to what extent does the Islamic religion inform this identity, in the case of Saudi Arabia? And (2) How does the architecture of the SNM express this identity, and how effectively does it contribute to strengthening it through the specific configuration of the visitor journey? The research begins with a review of prior literature examining the theoretical dimensions of the three key areas of study: identity, architecture, and museums. Related issues specific to the study of museums – such as narratives, exhibitions, and visitor behaviour, are also explored in depth in order to clarify their role in the construction of a sense of national identity in the context of Saudi Arabia. The review is limited to the period from the late 1930s to the present day, during which time Saudi Arabia underwent a major process of urbanisation, alongside additional significant social and political changes. The study focuses on the SNM, the architectural characteristics (including space, environment and exhibitions) which were evaluated through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The application of the ‘scales of narrativity’ model, and two-communication denotative and connotative meanings were used as theoretical tools to afford insights into museum environments, as these are seen as effective vehicles for promoting identity, and emphasising the impact of architecture on the process of constructing meaning. The views of architects, designers and museum directors were also studied, and visitor experience surveys issued, in order to understand the relationship between the significant individual elements of the museum exhibition environment and the overarching narrative of the visitor journey. The visitor experience comprises influential, cognitive and behavioural aspects, which were analysed through a combination of self-reported responses to open-ended questions and observed visitor behaviour. Subsequently, the study revealed the impact of museum architecture on the expression of national identity to be more complex than previously assumed. Considering the matter of identity through empirical evidence from architects’ and museum directors’ views, provided a way of investigating the various paradigms of identity, showing how the participants translated and expressed overlapping and sometimes conflicting definitions. By comparing national identity and Islamic identity, alongside regional and local identity, a comprehensive finding of the thesis suggests the significance of religion in constituting and consolidating the performance of Saudi national identity. By evaluating the museum visitors’ experiences, the thesis also identifies how the architecture of the SNM building contributes significantly to the experience and understanding of the overall exhibition narrative. A strong correlation between the effectiveness of the architectural design and the exhibition design emerged throughout the SNM’s eight main exhibition spaces (in addition to the specific configuration of the overall visitor journey), strengthening the sense of Saudi national identity. This finding offers significant insights into the efficiency of museums in general as instrumental in the expression of national identity via exhibitions, architecture, and the narrative structure of the visitor journey.
Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.
Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,013 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».