Education spaces

At the Bode-Museum, experiments behind closed doors and hidden workshop spaces give way to a public educational laboratory. Three spaces previously used for the exhibition of the collection and for a bookshop were redesigned by lab.Bode – Initiative to Strengthen Museum Education together with the architects from raumlabor berlin. They served as a “Space for Ideas,” “Free Space,” and “Platform” for the activities of students from the lab.Bode partner schools. They offered room for discourse events and training programmes, and they provided insights for museum visitors into museum education practices. Group and individual research as well as interdisciplinary and process-oriented experiences were made possible.

SPACE FOR IDEAS

Room I (226)

Research, Exchange, Relax

Tables and seating that could be flexibly arranged, inviting visitors to read, do research, and discuss project topics, ideas and questions. Containing a library about the collection of the Bode-Museums and literature on art education, the room served as a space for exploration and reflection for school groups and museumgoers.A

FREE SPACE

Room II (220)

Move, Play, Reflect

The “Free Space” was dedicated to movement, play, and physically oriented workshops. A raised platform that could be used as a stage enabled students to become performers or audience members. A large mirror, which changed the optics of the room but could also be hidden by a curtain, allowed for a performative approach to topics relevant to the architecture of the Bode-Museum and objects in its collection.

PLATFORM

Rooms III and IV (249 and 250)

Design, Arrange, Show

The flexible furnishing modules of “Platform”– cubes, table-tops, displays, foam blocks and mats – could be adapted to various working situations. In addition to being used for research, presentations and discussions, the large array of seating elements were also employed to test alternative exhibition practices, since the elements were easily turned into pedestals or display cases.

 

Concept and realisation of the spaces: raumlabor berlin

thinking the MUSEUM, making the MUSEUM, experimenting with the MUSEUM

“lab.Bode stands for encouraging developments that help museums become more open institutions. Cultural outreach is an opportunity to shape a cultural interface where personal and social thought processes take place and the values of society can be openly discussed. Art is substantive. It helps us to understand ideas about beauty and society in any given era. Through social interaction and dialogue with works of art, the museum becomes an active space, in which children and young adults can engage with art and the museum.”

raumlabor berlin, 2017