In 2011, we wrote about the newly opened Shanghai Museum of Glass (SHMOG) designed by Coordination Asia’s founder and CEO, Tilman Thürmer.
More recently, Thürmer’s team completed the Kids’ Museum of Glass located in the same Shanghai-based complex and opened a few days ago.
Cool and edgy, quite literally, the Kids’ Museum has none of the typical cute and cuddly kiddie features found in spaces dedicated to children. Instead, the target audience, kids aged 4-10, enter an environment of glass, particle board and metal realized in a colour scheme of black and white sparsely livened up with lemon yellow, saturated pink and cool blue.
The museum is designed to teach kids the basics of glass in a playful and fun way. The museum mascots, Bobo and Lili, guide children in their glassy hometown through various features, including The Beach, The Circus and The Factory.
Everything is designed to be touched and interacted with. Simple actions and gestures allow children to learn how lightning can create glass, how a glass prism works or what smart glass is. Performances, films and glass demonstrations entertain them in the Fire Theater and Up-Cycling Theater.
Kids can also practice their sketching skills in one of the ‘Draw Me’ installations. There are also two cafes and a shop for souvenirs, as well as a separate party space for rent for school groups, birthday parties or events by family-oriented brands.
The 2000 square metre (21,530 sq.ft) Kids’ Museum of Glass is located in the industrial Baoshan District of Shanghai and it is part of the massive former glass manufacturing site that covers about 30,000 square meters (322,920 sq.ft) and includes thirty existing buildings. When the redevelopment of the site was first envisioned and a 20-year plan created, the site was renamed G+ Glass Theme Park (Glass, Art, Research and Technology Park). – Tuija Seipell.
