NEW OPENING
Dinosaurs in their habitat is the focus of the Natural History Museum’s new exhibition, which has attracted tens of thousands of visitors. Kathleen Whyman learns how these prehistoric creatures were brought to life
The animatronic dinosaurs combine with a science-based, linear exhibition
A ROARING TRADE S
howcasing dinosaurs in their environment with the animals and plants that were around at the time is the aim of London, UK’s Natural
History Museum’s (NHM) latest temporary exhibition, Age of the Dinosaur. The result is an exciting display of seven animatronics moving among the vegetation that would have been their home millions of years ago.
Visitors also get to delve into part of the
vast collection at the London, UK, museum, via the accompanying exhibition, and learn more about the Jurassic and Cretaceous period. “We want to give our visitors a fun time, as well as show and help them under- stand the evidence behind the science that goes on here at the museum,” explains interpretation developer Georgina Bishop.
“This display explains how we’ve pieced together the scenarios that we have.” To achieve this, the NHM’s in-house
team brought in Land Design Studio Ltd. The brief was to design two world- class, world-touring exhibitions in one – an immersive, experiential exhibition with scientifi cally accurate themed habitats and animatronic dinosaurs, plus a more didac- tic science-based, linear exhibition. “It’s fair to say that this was a slightly unusual and yet extremely challenging brief, but one we were keen to meet,” says associate director John Blanchard.
THE CONTENT The animatronics side of the exhibition offers a multi-sensory experience. The vibrating ground creates the illusion that the dinosaurs are coming to get you, and smell, misting and a sound track further enhance the experience. “We combined everything to make people feel immersed in the environments,” says Bishop. The Jurassic area features a camara-
36 Visitors can create an online scrapbook by collecting virtual specimens and dino facts
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sauraus and the earth’s fi rst bird, an archaeopteryx. In the Cretaceous area, visi- tors meet a velociraptor, a protoceratops and a gallimimus, before being confronted by a tarbosaurus and an oviraptor. It was working around the animatron- ics that was the biggest challenge for
AM 3 2011 ©cybertrek 2011
PHOTOS FAR LEFT, LEFT AND MAIN PICTURE NICK WOOD FOR LAND DESIGN STUDIO © 2011
PHOTOS ABOVE CENTRE AND LEFT: NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
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