Waterloo Regional Children's Museum

10, King Street West, Kitchener, Canada

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Waterloo Regional Children's Museum

10, King Street West, Kitchener, Canada

Type

Cultural › Museum

YEAR

2002

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

The Children’s Museum is a conversion of a century old department store, which maximized the original building’s structure of steel columns and beams and mill floor decking. This renovation is part of Kitchener’s urban design plan to rejuvenate the historic main street and marks a significant re-investment in public life on King Street.The interior spaces are designed to support the theme of the museum which celebrates the historic and current, economic and cultural identities of the region - technology and art. The building is landlocked on three sides, so an atrium was carved out of the building to provide light and visibility throughout all the floors. This space has become the dominant image for the museum. It is also the primary space choreographing both vertical and horizontal circulation. It is a place of reverie, where curious volumes and planes float mysteriously in a kind of abstract symphony of forms pitched to the child's imagination. The King Street elevation incorporates these motifs, giving glimpses of the life within.