The Sustainability Treehouse exhibit program imagines a “net-zero” everyday life inspired by how a tree exists in the forest. Our Volume team crafted five floors of exhibit experience to activate its visitors.

MY ROLE

I developed the visual identity and signage system, concepted and prototyped several major exhibits, directed junior design staff, researched content in support of our writing team, and collaborated closely with our cross-functional group of architects, strategists, and fabricators.

BUSINESS GOALS

The Treehouse—a net-zero building designed by Mithun Architects—takes nothing from the grid and recycles all its waste. The Boy Scouts needed a sustainability story for its interior exhibits that would update their “leave no trace” ethos with future-forward strategies for living sustainably.

USER NEEDS

Scouts visiting the Becktel Summit Reserve are here for summer camp—read FUN—and anxious to get to ziplines, a skate park, climbing areas, and other activities. The Treehouse needed to fit within this context. It needed stories and exhibits that are decidedly unexpected and experiential.

ENTRY SYMBOL

The entry symbol foreshadows the major stories within: a) A tree collects and recycles its own energy.  b) A forest ecosystem is self sustaining.  c) This treehouse is a “net zero building.”  d) Through simple tactics, we can live more sustainably.

TREE EXHIBIT

We crafted a key story for the first internal space: that a tree such as this one captures its own energy and nutrients which it distributes and later recycles into soil, generating more nutrients.

EXHIBIT SYSTEM

Text panels, interactives, artifacts, video, and still images provide a range of entry points into the story—each delivering a specific learning in the overall narrative.

EXPERIENCE DESIGN

A key strategy was to teach through experience. We made rain capture memorable by showing it travel through cups to reach the cistern.

BREADCRUMBS

As a counterbalance to the seriousness of energy and climate related content, we utilized unexpected surfaces for moments of levity and play.

BIOMIMICRY

Visitors go inside of a life-size woodrat nest to learn about animal architecture.

KINESTHETIC LEARNING

We crafted experiences where visitors interact physically and collaboratively—learning from the results of their efforts.

SUPERGRAPHICS

Depicting language—full of levity—at a human scale was a tactic we used to "jolt" any visitors that might be losing interest.

METAPHOR AS A STRATEGY

We embraced metaphors to expand our thinking and arrive at new concepts—e.g. how is this place like a beach boardwalk?

PARTICIPATION

On the top level, visitors see a gallery of commitments made by so many others who came before.

GRAPHIC AND MATERIAL PALETTE

We selected brand typefaces for their scout-y attributes. The signage material palette families with trail markers at the Summit.

VISITOR JOURNEY

Our schematic design phase culminated in this journey map showing the flow of the individual exhibits that comprise the overall program.

4.5/5

aggregate score from 2,000 visitor ratings

95k

visitors since 2014
(and counting)

15

design awards and
feature articles

Outside of my political disdain for the Boy Scouts, I like a ton about this project. Its audience, its location, and its mission very rarely see good design. After all, it’s much easier to make a flagship store in Tribeca than a sustainable education center in West Virginia. –Jake Barton, Local Projects and Core77 Awards Judge

CREDITS

Design Agency: Volume Inc.; Creative Directors: Adam Brodsley, Eric Heiman; Designers: Bryan Bindloss, Brice McGowen, Ed O'Brien; Architect: Studio Terpeluk; Fabrication: Pacific Studios