The Port – Port Discovery Children’s Museum
Baltimore, Maryland
As the centerpiece gallery for a children’s museum, “The Port” brings to life the kineticism of a real harbor by utilizing foam blocks as an analog for shipping containers.
My part in this project; edit the Master Plan book, ideate on featured activities for the port and problem solve block building.
Many of the activities in this redesign were based around activities going on at the Port; receiving shipping containers from ship to port, fish market, scanning containers for items inside, checking them in and running the ships.
One of the two featured activities that I was involved with for the research development portion of the project was testing how many foam blocks could be stacked in height before topping over. Blocks represented shipping containers in this case. We also researched and tested different types of foam blocks that could be used.
The second activity that I was involved with was an x-ray vision machine that would show what items would be packed inside the shipping containers. In order to make them kid-friendly some of the images ideated were of stacked spices spilling out of the bag and playful mice announcing the types of spices. Another image was that of cars being shipped in with dogs as the drivers.
The space was designed to infuse “plausible realism and a bit of whimsy” into every aspect of the experience.
Below are the before’s followed by 3D Visualization mockups.
**ALL Images and 3D models are not my own. Shown strictly for visualization.**
Current:
3D Visualization: