Opening May 14, this new interactive exhibition at the Canadian Children’s Museum explores homes around the world. The exhibition helps young visitors explore a wide variety of homes in different regions and climates around the globe. People live in all kinds of places – large houses, small houses, portable shelters, apartments, houseboats, and more. The kind of home a person lives in is influenced by everything from geographical setting, climate, tradition and culture, to personal preference, financial resources and available materials. This new exhibition focuses on how a home’s environmental setting influences what it is made of, how it is built and organized, and how the different parts of the home are used.
“Your House, My House is an interactive exhibition that will encourage children to make connections with people from other parts of the world, as they learn about their homes,” said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. “Young visitors will see different types of housing – particularly how houses relate directly to the physical environment, and how they reflect many aspects of the cultures of the people who live in them.”
The exhibition has four main sections. The first component, My House, shows how a house’s environment can affect its design. The second component, Houses, Houses Everywhere, presents various types of shelter. The third and fourth sections are the Design Centre and Build Your Own.
Visitors will find elements in the exhibition that are both familiar and exotic. The My House area, for instance, has three walk-in house environments, with fun activities that help children make connections between what happens in their own homes and what happens in other types of homes. The Houses, Houses Everywhere section has a hexagonal structure with six compare-and-contrast stations that also feature world maps and a globe to help establish the global flavour of the exhibition. The Design Centre features activities with “Design-A-House” computers and a drafting table. Build Your Own has activities that allow young visitors to build a timber house and several tabletop house models.
Your House, My House was created by the Children’s Museum of Memphis and will be presented at the Canadian Children’s Museum from May 14 to September 5, 2005.