Museums as Spatial Instruments Supporting Creative Culture

Integrating Community Economies, Creative Placemaking, and Youth Identity through Spatial Planning

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-747-7_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cultural Identity; Creative Placemaking; Youth Engagement

Abstract

Museums are being repositioned as active cultural infrastructures that benefit public life, contribute to urban identity, and support creative economies. Their role as mere preservation sites has been outgrown, and today museums support community engagement, creative placemaking, and youth participation. However, spatial planning and architectural design as means of achieving these results are still hardly discussed despite the increased awareness of such expanded roles. This research looks into museums as spatial instruments that creatively contribute to local economies and youth identity formation. The study, which falls under the Creative Cultures and Identity research theme, investigates the effects of spatial layout, circulation systems, and levels of urban influence on public interaction and engagement. The research uses a qualitative, exploratory approach that includes a thorough literature review alongside the comparative case studies of four museums. The case studies are combined with spatial analysis, physical observations of movement and use patterns, youth-oriented surveys, and interviews with stakeholders. The study results indicate that museums located within pedestrian networks, open public spaces, and culturally vibrant areas have much higher visitor engagement, particularly of younger demographics, and at the same time, contribute more to local creative economies. Major spatial factors include accessibility, permeability, adaptability, and the smooth integration of indoor and outdoor spaces. The findings are useful for architects, planners, and policymakers who wish to create cultural spaces that are inclusive, interactive, and socially responsive.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Vaishnavi Gaure
AU  - Ruchismita Pradhan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/24
TI  - Museums as Spatial Instruments Supporting Creative Culture
BT  - Proceedings of the International Seminar on Designing the Future (ISDF 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 94
EP  - 119
SN  - 3091-4442
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-747-7_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-747-7_5
ID  - Gaure2026
ER  -