Imagine It! was a complex project with a number of different areas totaling 12,000 square feet, each exhibit had its own design and fabrication challenges, including: Fundamentally Food, Learning, Creativity, and Tools.  The Fundamentally Food exhibit explored the relationship with food, including the nutritional components, production and transportation of food and the preparation and serving of food.  The cultural and international aspects of food and eating were also emphasized.  In the Learning exhibit, children explored a treehouse in a forest and waterplay stream.  Also included in this area was a safe space for toddlers, protected from the general area by an entertaining and educationally appropriate perimeter fence.  In the Creativity exhibit, a dynamic and stimulating environment was created to allow the children to experience a wide range of creative activities.  A highly technical area was developed with 'blue screen' technology to encourage an exploratin of music, dance and performance.  Also included were interactives for painting, sculpture and sandplay.  In the Tools exhibit, childern were presented with a variety of problem-solving activities and role-playing.  They were encouraged to explore building and the use of tools in a number of creative endeavors.  MurphyCatton was intimately involved in this project from design development to installation.  This is a great example of how a coordinated effort between the designer and the fabricator was able to marry design intent and engineering ideas to produce an afforadable exhibition.

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