Micropia is the first museum of microbes in the world. Photo: Meike Hansen.
FX International Interior Design Awards 2015
Micropia has made the shortlist of the seventeenth edition of the FX Awards in the category ‘Museum or Exhibition space’. The winners are chosen by the public who can cast their vote per category. The 25th of November the winners of each category will be announced.
European Museum of the Year Award 2016
Of all the 49 candidates, Micropia is one of the three nominees from the Netherlands. The EMYA was founded in 1977 with the aim to recognize excellence in the European museum scene. Museums can only take part in the competition if they are newly opened or have undergone modernization or expansion in the past two years. In 2015 the EMYA went to the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.
Best of Year Interior Design Award 2015
Micropia received a 'honoree' from the Best of Year Design Award in the category 'Exhibit'. Micropia was one of four finalists of the BOY Interior Design Award in this category.
German Design Award 2016
Micropia received a ‘special mention’ from the German Design Awards in the category ‘Excellent Communications Design – Fair and Exhibition’. “A fascinating exhibition that lets visitors explore a different cosmos”, states the jurystatement of Michel Casertano, Dr. Angelika Nollert en Prof. Hartmut A. Raiser.
from interactive exhibits to a soundscape
In creating the exhibition design studio Kossmann.deJong worked in close collaboration with ART+COM , a Berlinbased media design firm. Lots of Micropia’s exhibits are interactive, although the designers were at pains not to make things interactive just for the sake of it. Mark de Jong, owner of Kossman.dejong: “Interactivity has to add something to the experience and not distract from the content.” The ART+COM designers point to the body scan as a successful example of this. The visitor not only works the interface in this exhibit but is also the subject of it. The soundscape which fills the space is an important unifying factor. Sound designer Peter Flamman makes use of analogue noises to give the visitor the idea that he or she is entering an unknown and amazing world.
Earlier this year Micropia was nominated for a SBID Award in the category ‘Public Space’.