© Alex Kelly for NYSCI, 2014.

New Permanent Exhibition Kicks Off 50th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday, June 7, the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) will open Design Lab, a new, permanent exhibition that taps into people’s natural tendency to be inventive and resourceful in finding solutions to basic engineering and design challenges. Design Lab consists of five visually and thematically distinct activity areas that evoke a sense of childlike playfulness and imagination. The activities will encourage visitors to be creative while experimenting with structures, circuits, simple materials and more. Design Lab will transform the lower level of the Central Pavilion, part of NYSCI’s original facility built for the 1964-65 World’s Fair.

“With Design Lab, we are exploring a new form of engagement between a museum and its visitors,” said Margaret Honey, President and CEO of NYSCI. “Science museums have always been known for hands-on exhibits and participatory programs, but with Design Lab, visitors are in the driver’s seat like never before. You can think, build, test and refine your ideas, putting creative design and engineering to work as you overcome obstacles, solve problems, and point the way to a better world.”

Design Lab activities use common, everyday materials to emphasize that creativity is not dependent on specialized tools or expert knowledge. Instead, the activities show how expertise is achieved through experimentation, critical thinking and collaboration. Displays will showcase the work of previous visitors to provide inspiration for new creations. From the beginning, teachers and educators have played an important role in the development of Design Lab’s activities and content. One of the goals of Design Lab is to ensure that school groups and teachers can transfer concepts related to design and engineering from NYSCI back into the classroom.

Design Lab’s five activity areas include:
• Backstage, where visitors will devise solutions to performance-based activities. In the exhibition’s first summer season, visitors will make jointed shadow puppets out of index cards, fasteners, sticks and tape.
• Sandbox, where visitors will build sturdy structures they can stand inside, such as this summer’s dowel construction activity, where museum-goers are challenged to build a large structure out of wooden dowels and rubber bands.
• Studio, where visitors will build small, tabletop structures and add their creation to a collaborative project. This summer’s activity will challenge visitors to build a structure out of cardboard, circuits and pipe cleaners that would make their city a happier place.
• Treehouse, a split-level area for experiments and activities requiring a vertical drop. The first activity featured in this space will have museum-goers use pulleys, zip lines and other items to create a method to move objects between the two levels.
• Maker Space, which opened in 2012, shows visitors how to use tools that convert design ideas into prototypes.

Summer hours for Design Lab activities are Monday – Friday, 10:30 am – 4:30 pm; Saturday 11 am – 5:30 pm, and Sunday 10:30 am – 5:30 pm. Activities are free with general NYSCI admission for general museum visitors. Camp and school groups can reserve Design Lab sessions for a fee by calling 718-699-0301 in advance of their visit.

Design Lab was designed and fabricated by SITU Studio, located in Brooklyn, NY. SITU developed a series of flexible activity areas, each distinct in size, materials and degree of enclosure with structural elements purposely made visible to visitors, inspiring a DIY sensibility. Intended to frame and support a variety of programming activities at different scales for audiences of all ages and experiences, Design Lab inspires visitors to share ideas in an iterative, creative design process and reflect on design precedents with built-in storage and display systems. While smaller nooks allow for observation, desk-free open spaces are suited for group activities. The visual vocabulary for the activity areas is playful, yet sophisticated, evoking imaginative experiences of childhood, but reframing it toward new possibilities.

“Our ambition for Design Lab was to create an environment that would celebrate NYSCI’s innovative work in science education and learning through interest-driven creative design processes. To achieve this goal, our challenge as designers was to develop a series of workshops flexible enough to support the myriad activities they will host today and in the future. SITU and NYSCI share the belief that the Maker Movement presents new ways of thinking about the intersection of design and science – this project presented a perfect opportunity to explore this theme together,” said Aleksey Lukyanov-Cherny, partner at SITU Studio.

Design Lab is made possible with generous support from Phyllis and Ivan Seidenberg, the Verizon Foundation, Office of Naval Research and the Xerox Foundation. The Verizon Foundation provided seed funding for Design Lab that supported the participation of teachers to contribute to and inform the exhibition.

In 2014, NYSCI is celebrating its 50th anniversary with three major projects. In addition to Design Lab, the 50th anniversary year will include the September reopening of the iconic Great Hall, NYSCI’s original structure from the 1964-65 World’s Fair. Designed by Wallace K. Harrison, the Great Hall features undulating walls that rise 100 feet tall and includes more than 5,000 blue glass panels, making it one of the most visually stunning spaces in New York City. In October, the anniversary year continues with the opening of a cutting-edge exhibition titled Connected Worlds, which will be housed in the newly renovated Great Hall and will focus on the issue of sustainability.

About the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) – The New York Hall of Science presents 450 exhibits, demonstrations and design spaces that explain science, technology, engineering and math. A visit to NYSCI is a hands-on, energetic educational experience where you can indulge your curiosity and nurture your creativity. NYSCI offers professional development for teachers, produces curricula and resources for classrooms, and studies how technology, gaming and play affect how we learn. NYSCI was founded at the 1964-65 World's Fair and has evolved into New York’s center for interactive science serving a half million students, teachers, and families each year. NYSCI is open Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 5 pm and weekends, 10 am – 6 pm. General admission is $11 for adults and $8 for children (ages 2-17), college students with valid ID, and seniors (62+). For directions and other information, visit nysci.org or call 718-699-0005

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