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National Building Museum opens PLAY WORK BUILD

National Building Museum in Washington presents PLAY WORK BUILD, an exhibition on view November 18, 2012 – November 18, 2014.

Visitors play with loose, light-weight, molded foam blocks in the Museum’s newest hands-on exhibition PLAY WORK BUILD opening on November 18. Rendering courtesy Rockwell Group.

Research has shown how important play can be to a child’s development. But, play is not only for kids. Through this exhibition, visitors will begin to see the connections between play, design, and the work of building professionals like architects and engineers.

Only at the National Building Museum can the concepts of PLAY, WORK, and BUILD be combined to create a new exhibition that will enthrall kids and adults alike. Conceived in partnership with the internationally renowned design firm the Rockwell Group, this exhibition will combine a presentation of the Museum’s world-class Architectural Toy Collection, a hands-on block play area, and an original digital interactive that will allow visitors to fill an entire wall of the exhibition with virtual blocks—and then knock them down.

After viewing a selection of construction toys from the Museum’s collection, from the familiar Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs to the lesser-known Bumpalow House and Ringa-Majigs, visitors will be given an opportunity to reconfigure their environment and design their own course of play with individually-sized blocks. In the subsequent gallery, visitors are invited to work individually to reimagine their small-scale structures created into oversized structures using supersized foam blocks or to work in groups to design and build something entirely new. Whether visitors choose the tactile experience with the small or large blocks, the virtual block-play experience, or all of the activities, children and adults alike will be encouraged to participate in unstructured, imaginative play that will exercise muscles and minds. – www.nbm.org/