Interactive Kota Iskandar LEGO Museum

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Project idea

Museum is typically perceived as a formal platform for cultural learning and often neglecting children as potential learners. Children's museum as an important institute should take up the opportunity to develop by understanding their needs for the proposed exhibitions and activities. Museum focusing to those needs have potential to become a unique place that brings children, families and communities together for quality interaction.

Back in the days, children should play, interact and explore their surroundings or environment with less or no restriction. Different from the past, today's situation shows the lives of children are good deals supervised with fewer opportunities for free play which effects in the shrinking of their physical boundaries. The idea of proposing Interactive Kota Iskandar LEGO Museum is to emphasize on the need of a place for children to academically and socially engage with local culture in early stage through interactive programs that will enhance their skill developments with LEGO as the main theme portraying flexible learning platform for children.

Project description

The LEGO concept encapsulates the idea of flexible learning spaces that designed specially to cater the need of children learning environment, rejecting conventional design of museum. The essence of LEGO concept itself is emphasized through alternative building image that produced the form as whole through recursive design concept, reflecting the modularity of LEGO units. The overall masterplan is aiming to vibe the pier area of Puteri Harbour that benefits local community as well as visitors from other areas. A series of nodal points is designed from Hello Kitty Town to Puteri HarbourInternational Ferry Terminal connected by Interactive Kota Iskandar LEGO Museum, allowing visitors to enjoy the new urban skyline portraying the metaphorical element of LEGO connection, creating a symbolic contrast in the urban fabric where the architecture makes a statement.

The research of form making are related to architecture style in producing the alternative image the suggest a better connection of the environment and also to create awareness of local history. The approach of the design is generative form making by applying recursive method where the form is translated into architecture and give meaning to the form it self. The algorithm of the process is documented to establish the rules of the form making process.

Technical information

The proposed design is strengthened by using steel framing structure functioned as a single module combined together to produce a dynamic form of the LEGO modules. The modularity of the structure supported by concrete columns and waffle slab as substructure system allow both structural and occupant loads to be supported and transfered within module without down-scaling the essence and aesthatic of the LEGO concept.