GROW LAB — Experience Design & Management
Designing a permanent nature-inspired exhibit for children where ecology itself becomes the interface.
Museum of Solutions Design a permanent exhibit about growth and ecological systems that children aged 5–12 could inhabit and explore without instruction — letting nature be the teacher rather than explaining it.
Led experience design and creative direction across four phases — defining the spatial arc, translating ecological themes into material language, collaborating with permaculturists and fabricators, and iterating from child observation studies.
GROW LAB is live at MuSo as a permanent exhibit — a space children move through like pollinators, absorbing patterns and connecting ideas through open-ended play.
Defining the Experience Arc
Identified growth not as a linear path but as an ecosystemic process — branching, looping, decomposing, regenerating. This shaped the spatial plan: no rigid routes, but zones children could discover and connect through their own patterns of movement and play.
Concept Design & Material Language
Led translation of natural themes into physical design — canopy-inspired installations, mycelium-like pathways, zones reflecting root networks and forest layers. Materials selected to feel earthy, durable, and texturally rich — designed to encourage lingering and repeated interaction.
Expert Collaboration
Worked with permaculturists, nature educators, and fabricators to ensure the experience reflected real ecological systems, not metaphors. Key insights — how mushrooms communicate, how trees adapt — became embedded in both design elements and storytelling cues.
Observation, Feedback & Iteration
Prototyped textures, interactive components, and flow maps with children and facilitators. Refined based on engagement, emotional response, dwell time, and collaborative behaviour — not just task completion.
THE BRIEF
GROW LAB is a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Solutions focused on growth — not just as a biological process, but as a lens through which to understand patterns in nature, ecosystems, and forest intelligence. Designed for young visitors aged 5–12, it invites children to touch, observe, imagine, and play their way through a world inspired by the deep intelligence of natural systems.
The design challenge was unusual: create a space that felt alive and open-ended without rigid storytelling structures, where every decision honoured ecological authenticity and child-led exploration. No instructions. No correct paths. Just an environment that trusted children to learn by inhabiting it.
DEFINING THE EXPERIENCE ARC
The first work was conceptual. Growth is not a line — it branches, loops, decomposes, and regenerates. This became the organising logic of the spatial plan: no prescribed route, but zones that children could discover and connect through their own movement patterns.
Areas reflected the layers of a forest: canopy, understory, ground layer, root network, decomposition. Each zone offered a different mode of engagement — sensory, physical, observational, collaborative. The experience was designed to reward both the child who sprints through and the child who sits quietly with one thing for ten minutes.
MATERIAL LANGUAGE
I led the translation of natural themes into physical design. Canopy-inspired installations. Mycelium-like pathways. Surfaces with real tactile variation — bark, moss, stone, woven fibre. Materials were chosen not just for durability but for sensory quality: things that invite touch, that feel different from the world outside the museum.
The goal was a space that felt found rather than constructed — an environment that suggested the intelligence of natural systems without labelling it.
EXPERT COLLABORATION
Working with permaculturists, nature educators, and fabricators was central to keeping the exhibit ecologically honest. These collaborators brought key insights that became embedded in the design:
- How mycorrhizal networks allow trees to share nutrients — reflected in the root zone’s connective layout
- How forest layers serve different species — informing the vertical differentiation of the space
- How decomposition creates the conditions for new growth — given its own dedicated area rather than being hidden
The design brief was a translation exercise between ecological knowledge and child experience, facilitated through structured workshops and iterative review.
TESTING WITH CHILDREN
We prototyped textures, interactive components, and spatial flow with children and facilitators before finalising fabrication. Observations tracked not just engagement, but emotional response, dwell time, and moments of spontaneous collaboration between children who didn’t know each other.
Key insights from observation shaped final decisions: where to add tactile interruptions that slow children down, where open space was needed for groups to coalesce, and where to reduce visual complexity so individual elements could be properly noticed.
OUTCOME
GROW LAB is live now, at the Museum of Solutions.
Children move through it like pollinators — absorbing patterns, connecting ideas, returning to their own curiosity. The exhibit stands as an example of design that is both intuitive and systemically grounded.
Key learnings carried from this project:
- Good spatial design doesn’t instruct — it invites, supports, and steps back
- Ecology is not just a theme — it’s a way to structure interactions, relationships, and story
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is more than coordination — it’s listening for resonance across worldviews
- Children don’t need to be told how nature works — they just need to be let in