Food service in museums and galleries: Dreamscape spaces for extended contemplation of the beautiful and the sublime.

Abstract

Concerning tourist consumption, food purchasing is commonly regarded as a key purchase for those seeking a distinct, sensory experience. Suitably focused food service design promotes reflection upon the holiday environment's cultural differences, compared to that of the everyday, and many tourist domain food offerings can be seen to have been designed to amplify this effect. This culture-food service integration, however, has not been much studied relative to museum cafés, although museum and gallery visits also form a type of leisure ‘break’ from everyday surroundings within a culture-laden environment. This paper explores the ideal spatial design dimensions of various museums, art galleries and historic house relative to food service integration. It proposes theoretical design dimensions, characteristics and considerations for the spatial design of the foodservice offer, as divined from consumer narratives concerning the ideal holistic visit experience.