Region Five Children's Museum - Nature Play Institute Project Planning
2021-02
Title
Region Five Children's Museum - Nature Play Institute Project Planning
Authors
Published Date
2021-02
Publisher
Type
Report
Abstract
This planning project, of which this report was an outcome,
was funded by the Central Regional Sustainable Development
Partnership, Extension and led by the Design for Community
Resilience program of Center for Sustainable Building Research,
College of Design at the University of Minnesota. This project was
completed in conjunction with a Legacy Grant awarded to the
Children’s Museum to develop a regional children’s museum. Project
goals included:
• To further develop, record, and analyze ideas related to the Region
5 Children’s Museum and Nature Play Institute in the 5-county
region of Cass, Crow Wing, Todd, Wadena, and Morrison counties in
Minnesota.
• To provide best practices and resources in planning and
developing museum architecture, landscape, exhibit, and program
design, ensuring all museum experiences connect visitors with
nature.
• To document all practices and resources in a comprehensive
planning document.
Keywords
Description
The Children’s Museum plans to welcome people of all ages,
backgrounds, and abilities living in or visiting Region 5. To achieve its
mission, the children’s museum will deliberately serve:
• Children 12 years and under with a high priority on children 2
through 6 years.
• Multi-generational families and classroom field trips
• Early care and learning professionals, elementary and middle
school educators
• Children and care-givers experiencing participation barriers
Many families in the region experience barriers and a lack of access
to early childhood resources. It is a goal of The Children’s Museum
to identify, address, and prevent barriers so that all families are able
to participate in both the development and the enjoyment of the
emerging children’s museum.
Section One of this report, introduces the project and provides a
brief context and history of the area, demographic data, highlights
of past master planning efforts and a timeline of events. Section
Two, Research, features various sustainable building guidelines and
design principles, as well as regional, national, and international project precedents relevant to the museum design. This section also
covers topics such as regenerative design, risk management, design
elements, transition space, and accessibility as important aspects
of designing built environments for nature play. Section Three,
Community Engagement, documents community participation
and input given by community members, partners, and consulting
experts. The process of community engagement during the phase of
this project was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Section Four, design elements, identifies key design intentions,
purposes, and several design elements for potential inclusion
in the perspective museum. Section Five, Recommendations,
synthesizes critical design considerations emerging from community
engagement, research, precedents and design elements and
provides a set of recommendations for future use.
Related to
Replaces
License
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, Region 5 Children's Museum, Center for Sustainable Building Research College of Design, Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
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