Caution! Construction Area - ZOOM Kindermuseum

ZOOM Exhibition
Caution! Construction Area
A hands-on exhibition for children ages 6 to 12
There’s always something going on at a construction site. Huge hydraulic shovels
tear down walls, while trucks take the rubble away and bring on new materials.
Things are measured, hammered, drilled, and built. The construction workers use
tools and machines that can be quite loud. A crane lifts heavy things onto the
construction site. Those who come by regularly can notice how quickly things
change. But what exactly happens on a construction site? Why do we build things?
Who decides what is built where? And how do we build things so that they don’t
collapse?
“In their very early years, children start building things using all sorts of materials:
wooden blocks, cushions, boxes, and branches. In a playful way, they can develop
their spatial thinking, thus learning something about the laws of statics and material
properties. The exhibition Caution! Construction Area relies on this interest,
showing the children how complex and elaborate it is to erect a building and how
many different professions are necessary,” ZOOM director Elisabeth Menasse-
Wiesbauer explains.
“If children could vote for their favorite construction site, I’m sure the exhibition at
ZOOM would be right at the top. Here, they aren’t limited to the role of spectator,
but can get involved and let their eagerness and creativity run wild. For me, a trademark
of ZOOM Children’s Museum is how they package pedagogical concepts in
such a way so that children learn with amusement, joy, and enthusiasm without
even noticing how much they are actually learning,” says Vienna’s Youth and
Education Commissioner Christian Oxonitsch.
“Yet again, I am impressed by the way ZOOM Children’s Museum has artistically
prepared relevant content by including the ideas of young artists and architects
in their new exhibition Caution! Construction Site. For the children, this enables
an exciting, original, and fun way of becoming acquainted with the most various
aspects of the subject of construction,” according to Vienna’s Commissioner of
Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny.
Around fifteen thematic exhibits present various aspects of typical Austrian construction
sites and offer the children an exciting realm of discovery and investigation.
Individual topics from the realm of construction are presented to the
children in especially interesting ways, using analogies from zoology and cultural
anthropology.
The exhibition begins with a planning studio. Here the children can learn what a
developer is, what tasks an architect has, what needs to be considered when
designing a building, and where inspiration comes from. Their own architectural
designs can be projected into urban space with the help of a beamer.