Building Buddies Claimed

The Building Buddies portrays a small community where everyone is busy working on their homes. Different characters, “buddies”, invite young children to play, explore, collaborate, create and learn while improving the “neighbourhood”.

The goal of this exhibit is to provide a discovery environment that encourages the development of science and process skills at an early age, as well as promote social interactions between visitors.

Entrance

Meet the Building Buddies: visitors are welcomed by four large colorful panels shaped like houses on which they discover the 6 “buddies” that they are invited to help.

Peter’s Office

Organize and plan a house with Peter the architect: visitors flip graphic panels on which sections of a large house are depicted. Children get to choose the location of rooms and make sure there are staircases on each level to access all the floors of the house.

Eva’s Bungalow

Help Eva to brighten up her bungalow: visitors can “paint with light” her kitchen cabinets with a brush or a roller, dress-up a window with curtain strips of different colors, arrange a wall of assorted foam flowers and lay a garden path with grass patches and rubber tiles.

Pipa’s House

Pipa needs assistance to finish renovating her house: visitors are invited to lay triangular tiles in the bathroom, “tighten” the leaky pipes by connecting pipes and fittings together and using it as a ball run, “inspect” the large drain pipe by crawling into it and measure and install siding planks on the outside wall of the house.

Winston’s Doghouse

Build a dog house for Winston: visitors use foam brick to build walls and long foam planks to assemble a solid roof.

The Wallton’s Residence

Engineering and building skills are needed to help the Wallton’s enlarge their house: visitors use foam bricks of all sizes to build sturdy walls and a tall chimney to keep the family safe and warm.

Billy’s Building

Climb up and build up with Billy the brick layer: visitors climb a scaffolding to move foam bricks up the structure with the pulley bucket and use the demolition chute to get the bricks down quickly. They can also use a conveyor belt to efficiently gather the bricks in a storage enclosure.