Engage and persist

Collaboration

Material Exploration

Mushroom Land:



The mushroom land is a new exhibit designed for the Discovery Museum in Boston. The new exhibit is located at the second floor of the museum connects and interact the Betty house, targeting the same age group(3-5). The Goal of the exhibit is to encourage imaginary and sensory play allow children to play individually and collaboratively. The design consist of bright and vibrant colors to spark curiosity among kids as the display area is located next to the emergence exit and elevator. The mushroom house utilizes the corner to maximize the interior space. This element will provides a sense of safety and privacy for users. Outside the mushroom house is where the mushroom patches are located allowing kids to interact, pick, and plant with the crotched mushrooms. The mushroom puzzle is located along the railing where kids can sit floor and explore. The whole exhibit provides and area for children to utilize their hands and imagination to play.

Concept development

During this studio I have mainly been working on the structure of the top part of the mushroom house. There was many challenges when creating the structure including the measurements, spaces, size, and materials. There were many times where I thought about giving up as I had to create many iterations. However, after communicating and receiving help from my teammates and coaches we created the final prototype which is pretty successful during the mid review testing. Our team had a longer brainstorming session as we were creating a new design and certain restrictions. We used very vibrant colors for the design, so we had to utilize many different materials to create both texture and vibrancy. After the User play testing we adjusted the size of the mushroom house and some of the play elements to better fit the museum and age group. Overall I am very grateful for this opportunity to work with the museum and I learned lots of new skills along the way.