How can a designed physical landscape offer children an immersive experience through a shift in scale?
Pathway Park offers visitors of the Greensboro Children’s Museum an interactive experience, as children play and learn to navigate through a larger-than-life landscape. Children follow their natural sense of curiosity to discover their individual pathways, venturing through sky-high blades of musical grass, scaling mounds of stepped terrain, and sliding through an exaggerated exhibition of our natural world. This unique exhibit stimulates children through a sensory exploration of scale; harnessing critical thinking skills and imagination to create an enriching experience for every child.
Working toward a designed experience for children ages three to ten, this project focused on providing a physical immersive landscape for children to escape into. Situated within the Greensboro Children’s Museum, this project explores how a central exhibit within the museum can provide space for a shift in scale. Considering the surrounding exhibits that include a doctor’s office, a newsroom, a construction zone, and a house, Pathway Park offers a physical landscape where children can climb, slide, and move through tall grass while immersed in an exaggerated landscape.
Soft foam noodles concealing PVC supports scatter the landscape to create a dense field of “grass”. Various stalks contain sound-emitting beans to add auditory elements to the exhibit. These blades of grass are designed to bend and sway in a controlled fashion, responding directly to the child’s touch; giving them a cause and effect learning experience. Stepped mounds made of plywood and medium density fiberboard platforms coated with styrene; provide a durable and easily cleanable surface. The mounds direct children to climb toward a slide, providing a downward release into the terrain of the exhibit.
Working within a team of twenty in collaboration with the Greensboro Children’s Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina) this project was installed in April 2012 as a permanent exhibit within the museum.
How can a designed physical landscape offer children an immersive experience through a shift in scale?
Pathway Park offers visitors of the Greensboro Children’s Museum an interactive experience, as children play and learn to navigate through a larger-than-life landscape. Children follow their natural sense of curiosity to discover their individual pathways, venturing through sky-high blades of musical grass, scaling mounds of stepped terrain, and sliding through an exaggerated exhibition of our natural world. This unique exhibit stimulates children through a sensory exploration of scale; harnessing critical thinking skills and imagination to create an enriching experience for every child.
Working toward a designed experience for children ages three to ten, this project focused on providing a physical immersive landscape for children to escape into. Situated within the Greensboro Children’s Museum, this project explores how a central exhibit within the museum can provide space for a shift in scale. Considering the surrounding exhibits that include a doctor’s office, a newsroom, a construction zone, and a house, Pathway Park offers a physical landscape where children can climb, slide, and move through tall grass while immersed in an exaggerated landscape.
Soft foam noodles concealing PVC supports scatter the landscape to create a dense field of “grass”. Various stalks contain sound-emitting beans to add auditory elements to the exhibit. These blades of grass are designed to bend and sway in a controlled fashion, responding directly to the child’s touch; giving them a cause and effect learning experience. Stepped mounds made of plywood and medium density fiberboard platforms coated with styrene; provide a durable and easily cleanable surface. The mounds direct children to climb toward a slide, providing a downward release into the terrain of the exhibit.
Working within a team of twenty in collaboration with the Greensboro Children’s Museum (Greensboro, North Carolina) this project was installed in April 2012 as a permanent exhibit within the museum.