Designing a unique new children’s playspace for Birmingham
Minibrum, Thinktank
Location:
Birmingham, UK
Client:
Birmingham Museums
Services:
Experience Design
Partners:
Paragon
Project date:
2017 - 2019
KCA London was appointed to design Thinktank’s new under-8s gallery. The result was MiniBrum, an immersive, interactive space where children can explore STEM themes by exploring and playing in a child-sized recreation of the city around them.
Our role as designers on this project involved a highly collaborative development process with both the client team and the children of Birmingham. Thinktank’s aim was to create a gallery by children, for children. Co-production, therefore, took a significant role in shaping the approach and design of the gallery.
Throughout the process, we worked closely with Thinktank to explore how the children’s ideas and creativity could be incorporated into the gallery, both now and in the future. Based on these discussions, we developed a design concept that recreated a series of recognisable cityscapes dotted with Birmingham landmarks – from a transport hub featuring the city’s canals to a shopping street centred around the Old Joe Clocktower.
We also worked to incorporate Thinktank’s unique collections into the gallery, creating a space that celebrates and highlights its connections to the wider museum. Our approach included building themed and updateable object displays into the cityscape itself, and including references to specific objects in the graphics and props of the gallery.
The new gallery opened in 2019 and was shortlisted for Permanent Exhibition of the Year at the 2020 Museums and Heritage Awards.
Minibrum was shortlisted for Permanent Exhibition of the Year at the 2020 Museums and Heritage Awards.
My boys really loved MiniBrum. The attention to detail is fantastic and there’s so much for children to do.
