A study of museum courtyard space in eastern China

ABSTRACT The design of the contemporary courtyard is different from that of the traditional garden, but the practices based on the abstract relationships of the traditional garden represent a form of cultural continuity. The number of museum courtyard designs continues to rise in eastern China, which has outstanding traditional gardens and a rich historical culture. This paper aims to put forward the design strategies of museum courtyards of different sizes in eastern China. First, the basic data of 60 cases are collected from a wide range of sources and analysed statistically. Secondly, the design concepts and spatial organisation are examined in combination with field research, and thirdly, interviews with several architects are considered. Finally, this paper concludes that the traditional folk houses, villages and especially gardens in eastern China exert a profound influence on the design of the contemporary museum courtyard. The design of the museum courtyard reflects the response to the traditional context in three dimensions: spatial layout, spatial scale, and spatial sequence. This paper describes the specific design strategies of the museum courtyard as they echo the traditional context across settings of three different sizes: less than 5,000 m2, between 5,000–10,000 m2, and greater than 10,000 m2