Louisiana Children's MuseumProject Title: Louisiana Children's Museum Louisiana Children’s Museum was envisioned as a new model for children’s museums: a place where children in one of the country’s most underserved regions would have a wealth of ways to explore the artistic, sensory and natural worlds. Following Hurricane Katrina and three decades in downtown New Orleans, the Museum sought a more fexible building and expansive landscape design that would better foster the kind of early childhood play and environmental education that is at the core of their mission. That vision, based on the Reggio Emilia framework, places great importance on nature as a “third teacher” and emphasizes the need for children to explore and document their world on their terms. The new City Park site sits on the edge of a lagoon teeming with wildlife and provides an ideal living classroom. The site design thoughtfully integrates mature live oaks, the new museum building, and experiential outdoor spaces that demonstrate solutions to some of the challenging issues facing New Orleans and the world, including coastal shoreline loss, water management, food insecurity and climate adaptation. |