The perceived experience of time is part of people's lived experience of architectural space. This study examined the relationship between architectural components and the perceived experience of time in museum spaces and identified the components that contribute most to explaining it.
The research is applied in purpose and, in method, a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational survey. Data were collected through a researcher-developed 28-item questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.882) from 131 participants with postgraduate education in architecture in Rasht, selected by stratified random sampling; respondents evaluated their experience of museum visits. The components examined were multisensory perception and meaning-making, movement, stillness, spatial organization and circulation, and sensory-spatial elements. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, multiple and hierarchical regression, independent-samples t-tests, and one-way ANOVA.
All five components were positively and significantly correlated with the perceived experience of time, with the strongest correlations for sensory-spatial elements (r = 0.526) and spatial organization and circulation (r = 0.525). The regression model explained 35.1% of the variance, and only sensory-spatial elements (β = 0.312) and spatial organization and circulation (β = 0.273) made significant independent contributions; movement, stillness, and multisensory perception and meaning-making, despite significant correlations, did not. Perceived experience of time differed significantly by duration of presence (the group with over 120 minutes included only eight people, so this finding should be interpreted cautiously), but not by gender, age, education, or frequency of visits.





The findings suggest that the perceived experience of time does not depend on a single factor and is associated with sensory-spatial qualities and spatial organization. Given the cross-sectional, self-report design, the results indicate association, not causation.