Raise the Roof Walkthrough - ExhibitFiles

Using simple machines, visitors raise a
domed roof overhead and then safely
let it collapse around them.
AN EXHIBIT ABOUT BUILDINGS
The Kapla® blocks construction area provides an outlet
for solitary or cooperative building experiences.
The insulation interactive allows visitors to learn through
touch which materials make the best insulators.
Every building tells a story. Start
looking and you might find some
surprising stories in the walls, on
the roof, and maybe even under
the floor.
Discover the stories behind the
structures humans spend 90
percent of their lives within at the
Science Museum of Minnesota’s
“Raise the Roof” exhibit.
The engaging Build a Truss model enables fun discovery of
the role of tension and compression in structures.

Raise the Roof is a lively look at structures we depend upon, but rarely think much about.
With its intriguing, hands-on activities, interactive components and vivid images, it’s sure
to challenge your visitors to examine their own interactions with these everyday wonders.
In Raise the Roof, visitors will travel to great heights and distant ages to investigate the
foundations of architecture and engineering. They’ll step into a demolition site and view
the work of implosion experts, listen as their voices are carried to distant concert halls or
their very own living rooms, and enter a collapsible dome and raise the roof to explore
early arched construction. Visitors will be drawn from one activity to the next to
personally witness the principles involved in establishing, sustaining, and living in
buildings of all kinds.
This document takes a closer look at the components that comprise Raise the Roof and
identifies them within a sample floor plan.

Exhibit Components
Raise the Roof - Sample Floor Plan
1 Entrance
2 Acknowledgements Panel
3 Monument Valley Hogan
4 Joinery*
5 Joinery Panels
6 Triangle Towers*
7 Build a Truss*
8 Sounds Like a Building to Me*
9 Build with Kapla Blocks*
10 Insulation*
11 Buildings and Waste
12 Downdraft House Panel
13 Downdraft House*
14 CO Panel Dome*
15 Meet the Mites
16 Murrah Building
17 Art & Science of Demolition*
18 Loizeaux Family
19 ABCs of Demolition
20 Demolition Theatre*
21 Working in the Sky
22 Buckling Column*
23 Dogtastrophe*
24 Stories About Buildings & Builders
25 Magnet City*
26 Wind & Earthquakes
27 Earthquake Shake Table*
28 Damper Story
29 Tuned Mass Damper*
30 Elevators
31 St. Peter’s Basilica
32 Dome*
* Indicates Interactive Components
36'-0"
208
A FAMILY TRAGEDY
DOWNDRAFT
HOUSE
209
CAT CH MY BREATH
104
MURR AH BU ILDI NG
16
12
13
14
15
MEET THE MITES
DEMOLITION
COMPUTER
17
110
DEMOLITION GRAPHIC
110
DEMOLITION GRAPHIC
19
306
REAL COST OF 2X4
105
FIRST FAMI LY
18
11
DEMOLITION
THEATRE
110
DEMOLITION GRAPHIC
20
RAISE THE ROOF - WITHOUT GER
2,000 sq. ft.*
scale 1/8” = 1’
GENERIC GROUND PLAN - 2000 SQ. FT.
SCALE: 1/8" = 1'
formatted 8.5 x 11
216
INSULATION
10
KAPLA BLOCKS
* The exhibit can be expanded
to 3,000 sq. ft. with the inclusion
of the Mongolian Ger environment.
9
SOUNDS LIKE
A BUILDING
8
21
120
WORKING IN THE SKY
BUILDING
STORIES
24
BENCH
DOGTASTROPHE
23
22
2D
TRUSS
7
BUCKLING
COLUMN 106
55'-0"
BUCKLING
3D
TRUSS
6
MAGNET CITY
32
119
EARTHQUAKE
5
JOINERY
DOME
GRAPHIC
JOINERY TABLE
31
25 26 27 28 29
4
EARTHQUAKE
109
DAMPER STORY
3
30
MASS
TUNE
DAMPER
211
HOGAN
117
STORY OF ELEVATORS
2
TITLE PANEL
1

The Art & Science of Demolition
17
A recreation of a building demolition site provides visitors with an opportunity to
view building implosions. Nearby graphic panels contain supplemental objects
and information about the most “explosive” chapter in the story of buildings.
The Downdraft House
13
Visitors experiment with a doll house-sized model with airflow indicators,
a working furnace, and operating doors and vents to simulate the deadly
conditions that cause carbon monoxide poisoning in real homes.

Triangle Towers and Build a Truss
6
7
Visitors test the forces of tension and compression
(see front page) as well as triangulation in these
two areas. These interactives provide a hands-on
opportunity to explore the basic principles of
building stronger structures.
Earthquake Shake Table
27
Is it the rate of the shake or the shake itself that
makes a building topple This hands-on interactive
demonstrates how different buildings respond to
different quake frequencies.
Dogtastrophe
23
A fun and playful computer program that asks
visitors to test their building material choices
against a series of not-so-natural disasters.

The Joinery Table
4
This tabletop station gives visitors an opportunity to examine
and work with a variety of hand-crafted wooden joints.
Magnet City
25
Components like Magnet City are designed for younger
visitors, providing them the opportunity to make building
decisions with no questions asked. They can change the
look of a model village by manipulating a variety of magnetic
facades.
Tuned Mass Damper
29
An interactive component that simulates the work of the
large moving weights used in some tall buildings to slow
their sway during wind gusts.

Collapsible Dome
32
Visitors enter into the collapsible dome and turn the handle
to explore the mechanics and engineering involved in raising
a domed structure.
Sounds Like a Building to Me
8
From a living room to a gymnasium to a concert hall, the visitor’s voice is
transformed to characterize the reflected sound of a variety of spaces.
Building Stories
24
Sit for a while and read from a diverse set of stories about
buildings and the builders who make them.

The Buckling Column
22
The physics of column strength becomes a full-body
experience in this delightful component.
Kapla Blocks Construction Site
9
How tall can you make your building Can you make a spiraling
structure The popular Kapla Blocks Construction Site is a great
place for builders of all ages to test their architecture and
construction skills alone or in groups.