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Childhood in War
Childhood in War
London, United Kingdom
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Other Projects by Nissen Richards Studio
Childhood in War
London, United Kingdom
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2026
SIZE
5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft
Imperial War Museum has opened its leading exhibition for summer 2026 at IWM London. Childhood in War focuses on the impact of war on children and is additionally notable for being the first ever UK exhibition to look specifically at how war affects and shapes younger lives.
The exhibition aims to help family visitors understand and discuss conflict and will also appeal to young people and adults interested in the lives of children affected by war, with over 450 million (more than one in six) children in the world currently living in areas affected by conflict. Content includes objects, personal testimony, AV, plus hands-on and interactive experiences, designed to be robust enough for the target audience and ranging from full-wall board games to a large-scale evacuee train carriage, integrated across familiar settings from children’s lives. The latter include kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms and classrooms – everyday environments which underline the impact of war on everyday life, from children’s play and schooling to their health, safety and life at home.
“This exhibition represents a unique and important perspective on conflict” Pippa Nissen, Director of Nissen Richards Studio commented. “Our approach, which makes extensive use of graphics and interactives, allows children as well as adults to access sometimes hard-hitting information in a thoughtful and considered way, whilst strongly establishing a sense of place that can be immediately understood by younger visitors. The ‘normality’ of the room-sets allows children to understand how little it takes to move from normality to conflict, relating to their own lives by starting with family life settings.”
Using a colour palette inspired by the objects on show, the exhibition mixes bold colours with tonal shifts and colour-washing, often used to suggest a shadow or the imprint of the past. These moments of subtle, altered colour convey a sense of absence. The principle of colour ‘washing’ is used throughout as a means of abstracting the sets and creating a lively and dynamic visitor experience. Each room-set features a graphics base colour combined with secondary and highlight colours. Materials, meanwhile, range from the domestic, solid and familiar to the papery, bold and abstract.
The design setting and colour inspiration have a tinge of nostalgia, with the palette mostly taken from World War Two and the Cold War era, but ones that are nevertheless universal and recognisable to children today. The ‘bedroom, for example, features objects from the two world wars whilst the ‘living room’ features more content from the cold war with a more 60s/70s feel.
“The rhythm of the exhibition is created through people, places, play and moments of pause” Phoebe Flatau, Senior Lead Designer at Nissen Richards Studio explained. “A host of characters guide the visitor through the spaces, illuminating key objects and themes in each section. The sets, both full and abstract, create points of immersion and discovery, whilst other areas prompt play through interactives. Throughout the journey there are occasions to pause and reflect on more serious content through the lens of graphic provocations.”
“War turns the lives of children upside down and the exhibition’s graphic concept reflects this”, Emily Lannin, Graphic Designer & Illustrator at Nissen Richards Studio explained. “We have used shapes, typography and graphics that are often a little bit ‘off’ – either asymmetrical, precarious, offset, crooked, uneven, slanted or irregular."
As part of the graphics approach, three children were photographed in a variety of poses at the outset, with their silhouettes then either stencilled or screen-printed onto the room-set walls. The graphic ‘children’ greet visitors and act as their guides, leading the way through the exhibition.
“The figures of children were created as a way of easing the difficulty of the subject matter for child visitors” Pippa Nissen explained. “They act as guides and indicate to children where and when there is something do, read or watch, giving children permission to act in a certain way and to relax and be guided through the whole experience.”
Collaging is used for the exhibition’s 3D models, which are located in five of the room-sets. These all use images from the IWM archive and serve to create a sense of place for where conflict has occurred, illustrating more directly the impact that conflict had on the lives of children. The models also ground the exhibition content to work alongside the more fictional elements of the exhibition.
The exhibition aims to help family visitors understand and discuss conflict and will also appeal to young people and adults interested in the lives of children affected by war, with over 450 million (more than one in six) children in the world currently living in areas affected by conflict. Content includes objects, personal testimony, AV, plus hands-on and interactive experiences, designed to be robust enough for the target audience and ranging from full-wall board games to a large-scale evacuee train carriage, integrated across familiar settings from children’s lives. The latter include kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms and classrooms – everyday environments which underline the impact of war on everyday life, from children’s play and schooling to their health, safety and life at home.
“This exhibition represents a unique and important perspective on conflict” Pippa Nissen, Director of Nissen Richards Studio commented. “Our approach, which makes extensive use of graphics and interactives, allows children as well as adults to access sometimes hard-hitting information in a thoughtful and considered way, whilst strongly establishing a sense of place that can be immediately understood by younger visitors. The ‘normality’ of the room-sets allows children to understand how little it takes to move from normality to conflict, relating to their own lives by starting with family life settings.”
Using a colour palette inspired by the objects on show, the exhibition mixes bold colours with tonal shifts and colour-washing, often used to suggest a shadow or the imprint of the past. These moments of subtle, altered colour convey a sense of absence. The principle of colour ‘washing’ is used throughout as a means of abstracting the sets and creating a lively and dynamic visitor experience. Each room-set features a graphics base colour combined with secondary and highlight colours. Materials, meanwhile, range from the domestic, solid and familiar to the papery, bold and abstract.
The design setting and colour inspiration have a tinge of nostalgia, with the palette mostly taken from World War Two and the Cold War era, but ones that are nevertheless universal and recognisable to children today. The ‘bedroom, for example, features objects from the two world wars whilst the ‘living room’ features more content from the cold war with a more 60s/70s feel.
“The rhythm of the exhibition is created through people, places, play and moments of pause” Phoebe Flatau, Senior Lead Designer at Nissen Richards Studio explained. “A host of characters guide the visitor through the spaces, illuminating key objects and themes in each section. The sets, both full and abstract, create points of immersion and discovery, whilst other areas prompt play through interactives. Throughout the journey there are occasions to pause and reflect on more serious content through the lens of graphic provocations.”
“War turns the lives of children upside down and the exhibition’s graphic concept reflects this”, Emily Lannin, Graphic Designer & Illustrator at Nissen Richards Studio explained. “We have used shapes, typography and graphics that are often a little bit ‘off’ – either asymmetrical, precarious, offset, crooked, uneven, slanted or irregular."
As part of the graphics approach, three children were photographed in a variety of poses at the outset, with their silhouettes then either stencilled or screen-printed onto the room-set walls. The graphic ‘children’ greet visitors and act as their guides, leading the way through the exhibition.
“The figures of children were created as a way of easing the difficulty of the subject matter for child visitors” Pippa Nissen explained. “They act as guides and indicate to children where and when there is something do, read or watch, giving children permission to act in a certain way and to relax and be guided through the whole experience.”
Collaging is used for the exhibition’s 3D models, which are located in five of the room-sets. These all use images from the IWM archive and serve to create a sense of place for where conflict has occurred, illustrating more directly the impact that conflict had on the lives of children. The models also ground the exhibition content to work alongside the more fictional elements of the exhibition.
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