Quito museum sets children's play area within historic factory
An adaptive reuse museum in Quito, Ecuador, has debuted a children's exhibition space that centres play and exploration at the core of early childhood development, under the direction of international design studio Morphism.
The installation, called Awawa, opened in August 2025 at the Interactive Museum of Science, which is located in a former textile factory from the 20th century in Quito's Chimbacalle neighbourhood.
Designers Aquiles Jarrin and Bernardo Jarrin, under the coordination and creative direction of Morphism, created the 1500-square metre (16,145-square foot) indoor playground with kinetic elements and metaphorical considerations, emphasising the "experimental" elements of play.
"Awawa is inspired by nature as a structure for learning, by the tree as a metaphor for growth and life and by myth as an open narrative framework," the designers told Dezeen. "Rather than understanding the space as a conventional exhibition, the project was designed as a habitat where play operates as a process of experimentation and discovery, placing the body, emotion and imagination at the centre of early childhood learning."
The organisation of the areas – such as a wooden tunnel modelled after a fallen tree trunk, a spiral structure of colourful ropes that evoke a liana vine and a large slide with hexagonal elements like a wasp hive – doesn't have a set objective or order, but allows children to learn as they play.
"The spatial configuration responds to the scale of the child's body and their modes of movement, integrating areas of calm, zones for slow exploration and spaces for more intense bodily action," the team said.
"This diversity of rhythms allows for different moments of play and emotional states, supporting both collective experiences and individual relationships between each child, the objects and the space."
With materials selected to trigger processes rather than stimulate entertainment, the smooth wooden play structures and high-resistance polyester ropes add warmth and tactility under the wood-framed sawtooth roof of the original factory, while spongy rubber flooring and rhythmic paint contrast the rough brick walls.
In addition to the EVA tatami mats, mirrored acrylics and folded metal structures, the team integrated recycled wooden elements from the factory's former looms.
This worked to infuse the material history of the building into spatial and play elements.
"The absence of hierarchical routes, the atmospheric work with wood and colour, the integration of recycled materials with historical value and the understanding of play as a process of appropriation transform the space into a spatial laboratory for early childhood," the team said.
"Collective and individual experiences coexist, allowing each child to build a personal relationship with the space and its objects."
Other recently completed children's museums and play spaces include a cloud-like children's museum in Texas by Snøhetta, an interactive museum modelled after a Midwestern machine shed in Nebraska by HDR and a tactile play space at the New York Met by KOKO Architecture + Design.
The photography is by JAG Studio.
Project credits:
Coordination and creative direction: Morphism
Design: Aquiles Jarrin and Bernardo Jarrin
Museography and graphic design: Karina Barragan
Production: Proyectil
Executive design: Paulina Flores
Client: Fundación Museos de la Ciudad de Quito
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