SPECIAL FOCUS

Designing Spaces for Kids

Children's museums are all about learning by doing, and this philosophy translates to their design

BY PETER EXLEY, AIA, AND SHARON EXLEY

Children's museums are a relatively recent phenomenon and have always been about learning through play. And, for those of you who can't recall, that involves a lot of exploring, touching, running, smelling, jumping, tasting, listening and making noise.

Many of us recall the museums of our youth as dusty Victorian establishments filled with cases, endless text and, if we were lucky, a single button that when pressed sometimes activated a model of a steam engine or other fascinating feat of engineering.

Today, families visit museums expecting a tactile, multisensory experience. Successful museums are now as much about doing and learning through experience, as they are about showing and seeing. Concurrently, other spatial environments see changes happening too. Perhaps taking a lead from museums, parks and other civic spaces are encouraging more interaction and experience.

It's not all about touching. An art museum can't let you feel the brush strokes on its van Gogh, but it might let you focus in on it, teach you how to look in new ways, then lead you to a studio where you experiment with real paint and real brush strokes. A science museum introduces you to robotics by letting you "play" with its souped-up Lego exhibit. Even the local historical society transforms into Main Street to host an old-fashioned 4th of July parade.

Nowhere has the envelope been pushed more than with children's museums. Interestingly, unlike long established science museums or art galleries, the children's museum has never had to reinvent itself. With a couple notable exceptions, children's museums are a relatively recent phenomenon and have always been about learning through play. And, for those of you who can't recall, that involves a lot of exploring, touching, running, smelling, jumping, tasting, listening and making noise.

Museums as Communities

Many children's museums begin as grassroots organizations in small communities or neighborhoods. Often, it's a few motivated parents or teachers who provide the impetus. The sense of community ubiquitous to any children's museum makes relationships between park districts (or other public agencies) and these institutions mutually beneficial. The range of collaboration varies: the DuPage Children's Museum has leased space from the Wheaton Park District for several years, while the Arizona Museum For Youth in Tempe, Ariz., is actually a department of its city's government.

Common to all of these unique relationships is the dedication to a mission of serving communities and families. Children's museums are very tangible beacons: not only are they cultural assets, but a source of community pride, catalysts for tourism, as well as diverse places of inspiration for children and their care-givers.

Creating a Museum Requires Partners

Of course, museums don't happen overnight. A grassroots committee is well-advised to seek collaborations with key individuals and organizations in developing its mission, its programs and its ultimate home.

Developing key strategies and leadership in the fields of fund-raising, architecture and design (of both building, or adaptive reuse and exhibits) alongside programming are all essential first steps in

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creating a museum. In our experience, we stress the value of a collaborative effort in planning and developing a museum and its exhibits. The perspectives and issues involved in design, education, and project management are inseparable. All need experienced and dedicated advocates.

A Design Philosophy

"Educative design" is a philosophy that we have created from our unique perspective as both educators and designers of environments for children. It's a good expression of the importance of design that educates, and design that is educated. This provides direction, criteria and approaches to design and recognizes the following:

• pragmatic and developmental needs of all users are a foundation of good design;

• a desire to inspire through environment and experience; and

• designers, educators and clients have common pragmatic, developmental and inspirational values and needs that form the basis of a good program.

The three examples that follow have educative design as their core philosophy.

Bourbonnais' Exploration Station - The Educative Design Process

In 1994, the Exploration Station, a children's museum and facility of the Bourbonnais Township Park District, felt ready to expand from a small rented facility. They approached our firm, Peter J. Exley Architect, as specialists in educative design. A local architect was included to interact with our specialized firm. The interaction afforded a relatively small community the opportunity to work with a design team with expertise in cutting-edge museum design.

From the outset, dialog with the local community was integral to the project. Key presentations and meetings amassed information, opinions and reactions that were then interpreted using the educative design process. All such projects benefit from the contributions of the following groups and individuals:

• community and local interest groups;

• focus groups (residents, families, teachers, local business, etc.);

• museum board of directors (if applicable); and

• local media.

Photo; Bourbonnais' Exploration Station balances a facility for children play and learn with the natural setting of Perry Farm. Photograph by Doug Snower Photography.

Initial focus groups helped articulate "wish lists" of children, care-givers and others alike, as well as introducing everyone to the process of design and architecture. These exchanges were very much a two- way street of learning for both architect and the community. There were many public presentations as the design progressed, and local media ran articles, publishing drawings as they became available. Maintaining public ownership of a museum as it evolves is crucial in gauging reaction. Igniting action by investing individuals and businesses in their new museum is integral to the process of educative design. Another major challenge posed by the Exploration Station was its site on the Perry Farm property. The location was pristine on acres of park reserve alongside the Kankakee River. The placement of a building sensitive to the site, but also reflecting the buildings function was an interesting challenge. Ultimately the museum became a series of buildings that looked as though they belonged on a farm.

Giving children a sense of ownership and security in their museum grew from the educative design philosophy. The museum is clearly intended for children with features such as an "A thru Z Garden" taking advantage of the building's orientation to outdoor play spaces. Varying scales of interior space, whimsical shaped windows (great opportunities to view the world from inside and out, from different vantages), and some unusual materials and colors reinforce and emphasize the function of the structure too.

Nestled in the preserved landscape, many visitors wonder whether the building is a renovation of

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existing structures. No trees were felled, and the building was designed to sit within the existing shade of several mature oaks. So, designing the building to be attractive architecture is in many respects subservient to recognizing its potential as a place for play, learning, tourism, public assembly, and fun.

The key to the Exploration Station's success has its roots in the architect, community and client coming to know each other, spending time and working together. Maintaining this relationship beyond the opening of the museum is important too. Even though the Exploration Station is now open, it's important to review how the building functions and to integrate change within the design.

"Kids On The Fly" - A Lesson in the Museum as Public Entity

There are many pragmatic issues inherent to the building process that are sometimes magnified when a community decides to build a museum. These are increased when that museum is geared to children and further compounded when that facility becomes part of a public domain.

Invariably, safety is always crucial in design of environments. Above all else, it is the one thing that everyone is ultra-sensitive to in the design of projects for children. Beyond the use of materials and detailing (e.g., fall zones and corners), the paradoxes of means of egress and single supervised points of entry and exit challenge every design and require careful investigation, consultation with specialist agencies, and thorough implementation.

Kids On The Fly is a satellite facility under the joint banner of the Chicago Children's Museum and the City of Chicago Department of Aviation in O'Hare International Airport. It is really like an indoor park, saturated with activities for families. Both these institutions, already acutely sensitive and attentive to all aspects of safety and welfare, approached the design and development of this project with extraordinary care.

Kids On The Fly paid extreme attention to issues of accessibility, working throughout with the Mayor's Office For People With Disabilities. A primary goal in this project was enabling every child, care-giver or visitor exemplary access to this experience. To that end, audible and tactile interpretation of the project is available, and the best way to access the exhibits centerpiece cargo plane is via a ramp lined with interactive cargo and fabulous views of O'Hare's runways. It's a magnificent proactive solution.

Photo: Kids On the Fly is a satellite facility of the Chicago Children's Museum located inside Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Photograph by Doug Snower Photography.

There's a wonderful balance of the pragmatics, developmentals and inspirationals that are the foundation of "educative design in action" at Kids On The Fly. In the design process, this also extends to apportionment of realistic schedules and budgets. Recognizing too, the sensitive issues of any organization's ability to raise funds, their reliance upon pro-bono contributions (very few children's museum projects exist without significant in-kind contributions), and a myriad of other criteria are unique to every such project and location. Frequently, pragmatic issues such as these may seem to overshadow issues of development or educational mission, or even inspirational aspirations of design. We have found that thoughtful and completely successful pragmatic resolutions invariably lead to wonderfully challenging and inspiring environments and museums. Often we have observed that overly focusing on inspirational criteria can lead to rather awkward ill-functioning conditions without much needed inherent flexibility.

Ogden Park - Parks Designed for Children and Interaction

Many museums are successful places for learning, of play, entertainment, and even retail experience. So perhaps it isn't surprising that other types of institutions look toward the successes of museums in their interaction with children and care-givers. Recently, our team collaborated with Wolff Clements Landscape Architects and the Chicago Park District on the creation of a prototype neighborhood park at 63rd and Racine Streets in Chicago.

A small conventional playground and large play- lot within Ogden Park has given way to a secure, contained landscaped environment complete with interactive water features, flexible inspirational areas geared to art-making, storytelling, family outings (or whatever use creative camp leaders, teachers or care-

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SPECIAL FOCUS

givers can assign), a carrousel, a performance area, lots of places to sit, as well as a huge array of the latest play equipment.

In part, a project like this owes much to the ground-breaking explorations of children's museums. The creation of a beautiful park results from the creation of a nurturing haven providing experience and interaction for individuals, families and organizations in the community and neighborhoods of the city around it. The experience and interaction is inspired by the collaboration of voices in that community, the designers, and a committed park district.

Lessons Learned

The recognition of the importance and power of play in the development of children, the importance of adult interaction in that development and the commitment of public and private, for-profit and charitable organizations are criteria crucial to the creation of meaningful places and spaces for children, their families and schools.

Story telling quilt at Ogden park,Chicago Park District

Many times, we have found, the children's museum exemplifies excellent chemistry in that regard. And there are many lessons in the process of educative design that can be applied successfully to enhance our approach to the design challenges in the parks and buildings of our communities. A project such as Ogden Park illustrates a new generation of experimental environment. The reality that, in a conventional sense, this is a park is a poignant observation illustrating the potential of all public spaces and the opportunities inherent to educative design. Realizing the potential of projects that thrive on public interaction (including museums and parks), as places that are about doing and experiencing, is an irresistible challenge. The possibilities that exist through the use of educative design are a wonderful directive for elevating the qualities of our built environments with new experiences. •

PETER EXLEY AIA
is a principal of Peter J. Exley Architect, a Chicago-based firm that dedicates a lot of its energy to the design of environments and architecture for children, play and recreation. Contact information: Peter J. Exley Architect, 111 W. North Avenue, Chicago, III., 60610-1302, 312.335.1317.

SHARON EXLEY
specializes in 'educative design' and is a principal of the firm.

Resources for children's museums and start-ups: the Association or Youth Museums or AYM (202.466.4144) and American Association of Museums (202.289.1818), both in Washington, D.C. For more resources, see page 26 of this issue of IP&R.

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