66.1 Proceedings . 4th International Space Syntax Symposium London 2003 66 The spatial construction of seeing at Castelvecchio Gianna Stavroulaki 1 and John Peponis 2, 1 1 National Technical University of Athens, Greece 2 Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Abstract An analysis of Carlo Scarpa’s design of the building and the exhibition at the Castelvecchio art museum provides a foundation for a study of museum space as a symbolic form. Introduction In this paper we look at the manner in which Carlo Scarpa’s design of the Castelvecchio art museum at Verona (1958-1974) constructs spatial meaning and functions as a complex symbolic form. We will argue that the design does not primarily communicate a historic or other narrative about art, even though narrative dimensions are present. Rather, the design functions as a pedagogic device aimed at art as a particular mode of understanding problems, including problems of visual perception and spatial arrangement. In other words, visitors are introduced not to a story about art, but to the ways of seeing that are constitutive of it. The symbolic function of the museum bears on three aspects of spatial arrangement: building layout, the positioning of displays within the layout, and the structure of occupiable space which results from the manner in which visual displays project themselves to the gaze. The relationship between these interlacing aspects of spatial arrangement and symbolic meaning is mediated by an intensively embodied experience of space, whereby the gaze acquires almost haptic dimensions through movement, and where movement becomes punctuated not merely through its interaction with physical boundaries or objects, but rather by virtue of complex visual percepts staged through design. Our study builds upon familiar scholarship. By structuring the visual field, as it unfolds through movement, and the patterns of accessibility, connection, separation, sequencing and grouping that characterize the arrangements of displays, exhibition layouts affect the manner in which displays are perceived, compared, and cognitively Keywords Art museum design, exhibition design, spatial morphology, visual space, spatial meaning gstav_1@otenet.gr john.Peponis@arch.gatech.edu