“Future Heroes”, a 1200 sqm exhibition dedicated to visitors aged 4 to 11 years, invites kids to explore and develop their skills in an open-ended playful experience. They are empowered to become Future Heroes. Upon arrival, they are greeted with the encouraging message – “The Future Needs You”. As they begin their journey, a Future Trainer introduces the kids to the training zone. A Future Hero cape and an interactive wristband, enabling them to collect badges during training, is handed over. The children are encouraged to work together as a team to complete special urgent missions. In the process, they will acquire skills that will help them become successful Future Heroes. At the end of their visit, the kids receive a souvenir set of all the badges they earned and collected during their Future Training to take home and share memories with friends and family.
▲Video Overview ©ATELIER BRÜCKNER
Three igloo-shaped labs are embedded in an undulating terrain, which also incorporates trampolines and two large climbers – the Balance Balloon and the Rocket Tower. The overall experience, augmented by a magical soundscape, invites the children to explore for free play and have fun. At the centre of the landscape is an abstracted tree with swinging pods extending from its branches. Its trunk hosts monitoring stations that allow the Future Heroes to check their badge collections and communicate with their avatars, who motivate them to participate in more challenges and activities. Light paths radiate outwards from the tree, leading to the three labs. Let the urgent missions begin!
In the Build Lab, children are challenged to work together to build a life-sized habitat that can protect them from a meteorite shower using a modular building kit. When the timer runs out, a meteorite shower of balls drops onto the structure, can it withstand the impact?
The Design Lab is a dark space where the children can paint light patterns on the walls using backlit rods, mirrors, and prisms. They test their STEM skills by playing with angles and colours. The children’s mission is to direct enough light onto a solar engine to keep their spaceship flying.
Finally, the Imagination Lab tasks the children with exploring their senses (sight, hearing, touch, and smell). They discover an archive of sensory orbs themed with different categories such as “food and drink”, “city life” and “the oceans”. The children guess what is inside each one and reveal (by means of RFID tagging) the contents by plugging them into the flower-like structures in the centre of the space. The timed urgent mission in this lab encourages the children to work as a team to complete themed sensory sets, such as a group of kids having two minutes to collect all the “ocean” themed orbs. If successful, the flowers start to bloom: animated mandala patterns are drawn on the floor.
Interactive content and hands-on tactile installations contribute to the overall impression and haptic feel of the exhibition. Kinetic foldable timber scales cover the Design Lab, soft blue balls clad the Imagine Lab, and an open geodesic structure connected with wooden spheres covers the Build Lab.
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