Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined, Royal Academy

Most parents have a pretty stressful time at exhibitions, constantly telling their children to ‘get off’, ‘keep away from’ or ‘don’t touch’. It's a rare thing that visitors to an exhibition -let alone one at the Royal Academy- are actively encouraged to touch, climb up and sit down on the exhibits. Welcome to 'Sensing Spaces - Architecture Reimagined', a family must-see at the Royal Academy. You never know, it may even awaken the inner child in you.  

Throughout the main gallery spaces you will see installations from seven leading global architectural practices. You will be able to touch all except one, which is understandable: it's made from fragile four millimetre wide bamboo. Guaranteed hits with children will be Diébédo Francis Kéré’s polycarbonate honeycomb structure and Pezo von Ellrichshausen’s ‘Blue Pavilion’

The exhibition is truly interactive. Kéré's structure, like a blank canvas, awaits transformation with 550,000 brightly coloured giant straws that you can post into it in a multitude of ways. The concept behind this is that each visitor will have a chance to contribute to the final thing rather like the community projects Kere has worked on in his native Burkina Faso.

Von Ellrichshausen’s ‘Blue Pavilion’ transports you via either a ramp or four spiral staircases onto a platform into the roofspace. You find yourself among the roof lights of the main gallery, which are normally covered over to prevent light damaging important works of art. Children, especially, will love climbing up and seeing the sky above them, as well as the gilded angels that decorate the mouldings on the 18th century walls.  

While parents are pondering one of the bigger questions of the exhibition such as: ‘How can architecture impact on the individual’, they can rest assured that their children will also be stimulated and engaged - a win-win!

 It's not every day that the Royal Academy has signage which effectively says: 'Do Touch'.