The BugWorld Experience

Details
Project: The BugWorld Experience
Design and Exhibition design: MET Studio Design, MASi, Academy Studios
Retail design: Cubit3D
Size: 1,200 sq m
Client: RGI
Cost: £3.8m
Completion time: 12 months

In the design for the BugWorld Experience at Liverpool’s Albert Dock, the aim was to create an attraction that was more leisure than museum, without too much of the ‘yuck’ factor so often associated with insects. ‘At the beginning of the project, we all decided that we didn’t want giant bugs. This was very much about seeing things in real size,’ says Alexandra Prescott, senior designer/project manager at MET Studio Design.

Balancing education with entertainment was a priority for the BugWorld concept, designed by MASi Studio, a joint venture between American exhibit designer and fabricator Academy Studios and exhibition designer MET Studio Design. The client, RGI, had seen an insectarium in Canada, and wanted to create an attraction of a similar ilk. The BugWorld Experience allows visitors to interact with the insects, but also underlines their importance in an ecological sense.

‘The client wanted there to be an element of learning from it, an understanding of how important insects are in our world,’ explains Prescott. ‘If we keep on destroying them we’re looking at essentially no longer being able to grow crops and things like that. So that relationship was important to highlight, as well as it being a fun day out.’

The result is a combination of simulated habitats, digital and interactive games, information points and the opportunity to handle all sorts of insects. ‘If you just want to go there and get up close to all the bugs, you can do,’ she says. ‘But also for people who want to learn more about the insects, there’s that element that they can delve into as well.’

Visitors move through areas that replicate tropical forest, savannah and desert environments to give a global perspective, and more UK-focused woodland, ‘back garden’ and home habitats. Murals and life-size models of animals and plants create the scenery. Information is disseminated through games and software elements, while staff are on hand to bring out some 30 species in handling galleries.

The Grade-I listed building had previously been retail space and was in fairly good shape when MASi started the project. Leaving as much of the original brick walls and stone floors in place as possible was important, both for the building’s listed status and the subject matter, as the design team wanted to be as green and sustainable as possible dealing as it was with live creatures.

Benches, ramps and other timber were reclaimed and sourced from a reclaimed wood yard in San Francisco, while the main exhibition space used recycled rubber floor tiles from Expanko. Recycled materials were also sourced to create elements like rock outcrops, termite mounds and a giant ‘wasp’s nest’ that houses the theatre at the start of the BugWorld Experience. These are built out of a metal and timberwork frame, with expanded polystyrene coated with Dryvit cement and then painted.

Lighting changes to suit the particular environment. For example, the ‘tropical forest’ needed to feel darker with shafts of light coming through, says Prescott. ‘But in the ‘savannah’ you’re talking about blue skies, so the lighting was brighter and whiter.’

Low ceiling heights was a restriction for the design team so low-level wall lights were used, sourced from Light Graphix. Pendants from Davey Lighting hang in the insect-handling area, and from Targetti for the simulated British home. In the back-garden habitat, fabric leaves on the tree filter light. ‘It’s a very cost-effective way of creating a visual effect,’ says Prescott.

But what about making it all too real, especially in the more familiar Your Home habitat? ‘We could have pushed that further,’ she says. ‘We did have lots of information on different types of bedbugs and things like that, but there weren’t any sort of giant creepy crawlies popping out anywhere. Some of the feedback the client had is that people didn’t want too much of a yuck factor, so it was a case of getting the right balance.’ But this might soon change. ‘I think they’re going to push that more, having more sort of scary stuff,’ adds Prescott.

Towards the end of the BugWorld Experience there is a husbandry area, where insects are kept and bred. When bugs aren’t being taken out to handling areas, visitors can see how they are looked after. ‘I found it all really fascinating,’ Prescott says. ‘And I think most visitors do come away with the same feeling, and that makes you look closer at things that you take for granted, which is ultimately the aim of the whole experience.’