With the bodyscan in Micropia you can discover your own microbes.
international recognition
The DASA Award was accepted at the ceremony by Micropia’s creator and managing director of Natura Artis Magistra, Haig Balian. "It is fantastic for Micropia to receive another prestigious museum award in such a short time. Micropia wants to stimulate the public’s interest in microbiology and to spread an awareness of the importance of microbes to human beings and to nature. The visitors’ enthusiasm is what matters most, but this award is also a token of recognition from a capable jury of the way in which Micropia makes the invisible world visible to the public."
European Museum Academy
The DASA Award has been handed out annually by the European Museum Academy. The European Museum Academy selects the winner on the basis of a number of criteria. Contestants are judged on the museological concept, the quality of the storyline, the creativity of the exhibition design and the programme of educational activities. Specific attention is also given to personal mediation, the interactive participation of the public and the effective mix of education and entertainment.
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.
award-winning museum
Micropia recently won one of the most eminent European museum prizes, the Kenneth Hudson Award , for the most innovative museum. Since opening in 2014, Micropia has been the recipient of many international nominations and prizes. Micropia was an honouree in the ‘Best exhibit’ category of the American Best of Year (BOY) International Interior Award in 2015. In that same year, Micropia made off with the special jury prize of the prestigious British Museum + Heritage Awards . Earlier this year, Micropia was awarded the jury prize for exhibition design during the German Design Award event.