SCIENCE BEGINS WITH QUESTIONS

Project What If

On view
overview of the exhibition.

What if… we turned it around?
What if, instead of starting with the answers, we begin with the questions, with what people want to ask science before creating an exhibition? At the science museum in Bristol—aptly named We The Curious—that’s exactly what happened. The museum collected thousands of questions from the local communities and used the most compelling ones as the starting point for their exhibits. Questions such as: Why do rainbows make me happy? Can we make time go slower?

Location
Bristol (UK)
Client
We The Curious
Year
2021
Service
Concept, creative direction, spatial design, graphic design

Three-part collage

perception of time
Boy watching a movie.

A theatrical world of questions

Our designers collaborated closely with the museum’s curators to connect these questions to scientific themes. We then turned them into theatrical experiences, each marked by a bold scenographic gesture. The result is a wondrous world where questioning is celebrated and curiosity unleashed.
A Theatre of Curiosity forms the heart of this world: an open platform for live research, presentations, and dialogue.
overview of multiple questions
There is always a workshop or presentation going in the Theatre of Curiosity.
Space overview.

Question constellations

Thematic islands, featuring exhibits and artworks, are scattered around the Theatre, reminiscent to constellations. Each constellation responds to a cluster of public questions, ranging from “Time and Invisibility”, to “Rainbows and The Soul”. Together they invite for ever new questions to be explored through experimentation, reflection and play.

tornado exhibit
A hands-on approach: discover the answer for yourself!

Everyone can be a scientist

The exhibition breaks down the barriers between expert and visitor. In the fully equipped Open City Lab, anyone can join in and explore whatever question in a scientific way. It repositions science from something to be learned into something to be lived. And the museum not a place of answers,but a space where questions grow.
Open city Lab
We The Curious is truly an incredible place, I would even say it's unique for the whole family. There's no chance for boredom here, neither for adults nor for children.

Visitor of the exhibition

What if on a wooden board, with written white notes pinned underneath.
Every question matters.

We needed to value people's questions as much as our own expertise.

Anna Starkey
teenagers experiencing.
Everyone can ask a question.
baby experiencing
Everyone can take part.

Project data

  • 240,000visitors within 10 months of opening
  • 7Different themes
  • 68interactive exhibits
  • 10,000Visitor questions
Space overview with a turning wheel.
Time is ticking.

What if... exhibitions were sustainable?

Following our own curiosity about sustainable design, we experimented with innovative uses of recycled materials. Waxed steel forms the structural frames, recycled tires are repurposed as flooring, and multi-wall polycarbonate sheets and eco-labeled HDF panels are used throughout, just to name a few. This approach not only significantly reduced the exhibition’s carbon footprint, but also wove sustainability into the visitor experience itself.

Explore the secrets of color.
This is an invitation to wonder with the scientists about the biggest of questions.

Michel De VaanLead designer

In Project What if, curiosity isn’t just the starting point; it’s the exhibition’s driving force. It shows that science is not static, but social. Not closed, but open. And that every visitor, regardless of age or background, has the right to ask big questions, and see them reflected in the world around them.

Awards

SBID International Design Awards

  • Finalist

Do you have a story to tell?

Then let’s get started!

Lieke

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