Children shouldn’t be constrained in a closed box. On a site that is surrounded with water and hills, designing an enclosed building would have been limiting the experience of a children museum. For this reason, a 3-dimensional grid was created to blend the boundary between interior and exterior, extend the museum activity to the outdoor and bring the nature and air indoor. The grid was used in various scales, from the building frame to exhibition shelves, and was filled with glass panels and solid masses to create different types of public spaces, as well as enclosed private spaces. The transparency of the steel frame, acting both as a facade as well as a secondary structure, was used to bring daylight in and create an open atmosphere within the museum.

The built environment provides a sense of permanence and reliability to society. The architecture of the city accommodates the functions of urban life, while carefully curated concepts of architectural beauty dominate the design. Daily life bustles about carefully constructed streetscapes and buildings in routine patterns day in and day out, while society fufills the obligations of adulthood. The architecture of children, however, must be considered very differently. Children are not subject to the rigidity that adult society requires and the architecture designed to fulfill their needs must be as fluid as they are. Architecture for a child must not be prescriptive or dictatorial, but rather must reflect the energy of the children within it. While the rest of society functions within static spaces, a space for children should move and change as rapidly as their imagination does. Children should have the opportunity to manipulate design to suit their needs in real time. As children are allowed to express themselves through the architecture, their energy and imagination can reignite the child within the adults of society.

The Future Architect’s bedroom is a spaceship, a theatre, and an underwater city. Their back yard is a desert, a jungle, and a tundra. Their two best friends are the Future Engineer and the Future Artist. [All three can never agree on anything.] They performs slightly above average in every school subject except gym. The Future Architect is a five year old boy and a 45 year old woman. The Future Architect has been all around Europe on a plane and only ever in a book. They crave paper in all forms. They are never satisfied. They knock things down just to see what that looks like. Then they put things back together – differently.