Science Center Welios in Wels (Austria) provides a playful approach to the natural sciences and phenomena around the multi-faceted theme of »Renewable Energies«, showing various usages of regenerative energy sources and making them tangible. We have developed and planned the scenographic concept for the »Energiehof« (Energy Farm) of researcher Jouli and the area »Über den Dächern« (Over the Rooftops).
The story is about the inventor, researcher, and energy artist Jouli and his family, including his wife Fanny, daughter Lucie, and grandmother Hilde. Together, they inhabit an unusual energy farm, which is to be discovered and explored by the visitor during the exhibition tour. It is reported from the perspective of Jouli’s daughter, who documents the occurrences at the farm with images and sound. But the other three protagonists also play their own roles. Thus, father Jouli is not an ordinary father, as the mother is not an ordinary mother, and the farm resembles a fantastic place, where energy is always and everywhere the issue.
The storyline: One of Jouli’s experiments blows up a large part of his farm ... The beginning of the narrative space: Flying debris of the farm reunite and form a fragmentary landscape of different rooms and themes. Dynamic spatial images guide the visitor through the rooms of the family members into the kitchen, through the forest, into the adjacent mountains, and then to the second exhibition floor, the area »Über den Dächern«. Jouli and his family, invisible but still always present, give visitors tips and suggestions on many topics and on the 150 interactive exhibits on energy and energy efficiency.
In the design process, the use of real materials was important in order to make the spirit of inventor and innovator Jouli perceptible. Brushed wood interspersed with fragments of tiles or embossed wallpaper dominate the appearance of the farm. The exhibition graphics underline the character of the inventor: millimeter paper, notes, sketches – all of which have been quickly glued together form the construction kit of the information graphics.
More information about Welios® can be found here.
