“Children’s books tell the story of our hopes and dreams, so it’s natural that one of the main themes and storylines they return to again and again is: What does it mean to feel at home in the world?” says curator Leonard Marcus. “That’s a question that all of us ask ourselves from childhood onward, and it is the core question that Building Stories sets out to explore across geography, time, and the world’s diverse cultures, with a wide-ranging selection of memorable books as our guide.”
Building Stories, now on view at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., brings children’s books to life through linked and immersive landscapes guided by the principles that the built world is personal, surprising, inspiring and transformative. Curated by Marcus, the nation’s leading expert on children’s literature, and engagingly designed by Portland, OR-based exhibition design studio Plus and Greater Than, “Building Stories provides a portal into the wonder of the built environment through the imaginative lens of children’s books,” say the organizers. “The exhibition is organized into four galleries that explore 1) the building blocks of the written word, 2) the concept of home, 3) how scale play inspires us to think about our relationship to our physical surroundings, and 4) how to be proactive in reshaping and improving one’s environment.”
Visitors are welcomed to be immersed in a world of stories through a cross-laminated timber archway, created through a series of curving wooden ribs. A soundscape follows the visitor through this corridor, with a chorus of voices reading aloud various lines from books, creating an immersive world of imagined places. Viewers are warned to “Keep an eye out for a beloved children’s book character, Harold!”
Gallery One: “Building Readers”
This introductory gallery explores a child’s first experiences of shapes, forms, imagery and words as they become building blocks of language and the built environment. Building Readers also shows how the presentation of a story can be influenced by aspects of a book’s physical design and construction. The many parallels between the design of books and the design of buildings are revealed as visitors are invited to consider both the process of building and that of book-making through a selection of rare book dummies, original sketches and architectural models.
Gallery Two: “Your Home, My Home”
Three archways inspired by the Three Little Pigs (with books that explore “finding your way” using maps in children’s literature) connect Building Readers to Your Home, My Home. Visitors will encounter an immersive round theater with a multimedia presentation that uses light, projection and sound to bring Tar Beach, Shadow, and The Snowy Day to life. This gallery explores the idea and expression of “home” in its many forms: a bedroom, a house, or a neighborhood and community. Many Homes, One World explores what home (or perhaps the loss or absence of one) looks like in cultures and locations around the world.
Gallery Three: “Scale Play”
Scale Play is entered through a “magic portal” threshold where a tapered tunnel makes visitors feel like they are changing size as they enter. This gallery challenges our perceptions of the world around us through “scale play,” a recurring theme in children’s literature. What does it feel like to navigate the world when you are small? What is the impact of monumental architecture on how we perceive the spaces around us? Can zooming in or zooming out help us understand it all?
Gallery Four: “Wider World”
Wider World brings all of the exhibition concepts together to focus on the possibilities for children’s real-world empowerment and participation. How can we build a better world, together? Visitors enter a light-filled landscape pulled from the illustrations of award-winning author/illustrator Oliver Jeffers. Oversized soft blocks with imagery and words from his books, such as Here We Are, What We’ll Build, and Begin Again, invites visitors of all ages to write (and build) three-dimensional stories of their own—even in collaboration! The books on display in Wider World explore the connections between the natural world and manmade systems and how we might engage more responsibly by understanding their relationship. Stories emphasize characters who use their imagination and work together to shape their future and inspire other young visitors to do the same.
Classic and modern books are organized by gallery themes that contain drawers to open, panels to spin and buttons to push, digital slideshow and interactive experiences, as well as more analog ways to investigate books. The masterful David Macaulay is represented by his sketches for the 1997 Rome Antics. Legacy books with building themes are on view—notably the essential tales of The Three Little Pigs and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Six years in the making, this show will go down in history. But for now, children and adults will have access to high and low tech means for appreciating these books anew.
