H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

Schemat­ic con­cept design for an immer­sive and inter­ac­tive social learn­ing envi­ron­ment focus­ing on two themes: Earth Obser­va­tion and Chi­na Stars.

DE was called by the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the H.R. Macmil­lan Space Cen­tre to work with them on re-con­cep­tu­al­iz­ing one of their main exhib­it spaces. The H.R. Macmil­lan Space Cen­tre is one of British Columbia’s most respect­ed cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions hence it was an hon­our to be cho­sen for this assign­ment. This design chal­lenge brought togeth­er DE exper­tise in con­tent direc­tion, 3D exhib­it design, and envi­ron­men­tal graph­ic art direc­tion.

The exhib­it space was 4,000 square feet and was to bring to life con­tent relat­ing to ancient Chi­nese schol­ar­ship relat­ed to astron­o­my as well as mod­ern sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy used for observ­ing the Earth. These two diverse, yet relat­ed themes were woven togeth­er by DE con­tent experts and brought to life with phys­i­cal exhibits that pro­mot­ed vis­i­tor inter­ac­tion with both the exhibits them­selves and oth­er vis­i­tors. The bold chal­lenge of cre­at­ing a social learn­ing envi­ron­ment was a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty to uti­lize DE’s inte­grat­ed design approach that con­nects dis­ci­pli­nary experts and guides them to a com­mon goal.

The work of DE laid the foun­da­tion for fur­ther devel­op­ment and result­ed from pos­i­tive feed­back from the client:

“David Oswald brings a con­tem­po­rary inter­na­tion­al sense of design to his projects and to his dis­cus­sion with clients. He under­stands that today’s exhi­bi­tion vis­i­tors are com­ing with per­spec­tives that blend sci­ence, human­i­ties, art and envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns. He enjoys the chal­lenge of design that stim­u­lates and engages these many inter­ests.”
— Don­na Liv­ing­stone, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, H.R. Macmil­lan Space Cen­tre.