Children's Museum of Manhattan-Projection Pop Up Book
One of my favorite projects we created at Collab was for The Children's Museum of Manhattan. They asked us to develop an exhibit to teach kids about architecture by studying Mosques from around the world, and make it mobile so it could travel to Libraries and Schools. Mobile, yet immersive was the directive. And give the kids a memorable experience while teaching them about the architecture of Mosques.
As we researched mosques from around the globe, the design, color and the unique materials used to build these mosques became a guiding principal. We wanted to create an experience that would engage the kids and help them understand how complex shapes and structures played a role in the architecture in their everyday lives.
Our conclusion: build a 3-dimensional pop-up book, and combine it with a projection show.
We began by sketching out the installation, mapping the user experience. We then developed educational content around the history of each of the Mosques. We then went about building one of the largest pop-up books in the world, and made it mobile to boot.
Above is the final version. A giant pop-up book that when educators turned the pages, a giant pop-up replica of the Mosque was revealed, projected mapped with animated content to tell the story of the Mosque and the people who worship there and care for it.
Each turn of the page was a new adventure. We created a journey around the world for the kids, awe inspiring as each new page came to life with light, sound, animated content and projection mapping.
For the educators, we developed a user friendly custom software so they could easily deploy the content onto the pop-up mosques. Using an ipad, the teachers were able to move through the pages at their own pace, focusing on the students instead of the technology.
And and the end of each immersive, multimedia journey, the kids created their own projects with paper and scissors, inspired by the designs, history and structural elements found in the architecture of the Mosques they had just experienced.