In open-floor layouts, barrel arches can separate one space from another. For example, if you want to transition from a kitchen into a breakfast nook, but your layout doesn't have any walls there, if your breakfast area has a barrel vault while your kitchen ceiling is flat and high, you will have a sense of movement into a different area without the confining feel of walls.
Many art museums feature barrel arches in some of their collection galleries, lending a curvaceous flow to the room, as opposed to the boxy feel of a traditional wall and ceiling. The Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth both have galleries with barrel vaults in addition to spaces with traditional ceilings, to draw attention to special showings or smaller exhibits.
Even though the barrel arch dates back almost a thousand years, more modern church designers who are looking to recreate the grandeur of the cathedral look will add barrel vault or arch ceilings to their creations. St. Aloysius Church in St. Louis, Missouri, built in 1925, was designed to bear homage to the Romanesque tradition, with a grand barrel vault over the sanctuary. Also, churches like the Magnolia Baptist Church took the barrel arch idea and just kept going down, finishing with a structure that looks like a parabola, as the arch goes all the way down to the foundation.
Indoor shopping centers often feature barrel arches along the top floor, particularly in malls. These arches draw the eye upward and often have glass in at least some portion of the arch, so that light can come in. These arches give the mall a sense of beauty and grandeur, adding to the aura of glamor that many malls try to create.