An API for a space – opening up The Great Map

Lawrence Chiles, Independent, UK, Lucinda Blaser, National Maritime Museum, UK

Published paper: The Great Map

In 2012, Royal Museums Greenwich embarked on an ambitious plan to transform a large open space at the heart of the National Maritime Museum. It aimed to bring a focus, redefine its purpose, and make a significant intervention to the design, creating a piazza-style space where all visitors could engage in a variety of ways. The ambition was to create a new analogue and digital platform to tell the museum’s stories.

This paper will assess the findings of installing such a large intervention, as well as its impact on visitor behaviour. It will also examine how a process is being put in place to create an ‘API’ for a space, and what issues arise with creating an open platform that could possibly challenge the ‘voice’ of the museum.