ROAD TRIP
ROAD TRIP
Type: Mobile Education, Exhibit Design, Environments Location: Orange County, CA Year: Ongoing
Road Trip is The Ecology Center's innovative new platform for environmental education designed to engage all ages.
By day, the double decker bus travels to schools to deliver an immersive field trip experience direct to the classroom door, helping students unpack environmental issues and challenging them to take action. By night, the community at large can find Road Trip serving local farmer’s markets, festivals, or hosting intimate community dinners.
Conceived as a toolbox for change, Road Trip’s design distills the programming of The Ecology Center within the challenging confines of a 32-foot 1988 MCW double decker transit bus. Split into zones of activation, demonstration, and exhibition, the experience begins when Road Trip arrives, lowers its deck, and flips up its awning windows. With the bus as the backdrop, the deck provides a focal point for a newly activated outdoor space. Side openings invite visitors into an immersive, introductory experience, before drawing them upstairs into an interactive, educational exhibit.
The modular display system enables ever-changing activities within a transformed interior environment. Conceptualized as a secondary-gridded structure fit into the interior of the bus, the display grid reaches into the lower level as a full height trellis before folding overhead and transforming into the structural backbone of the display. Display modules drop in and out of the grid, supporting interactive exhibits in the greenhouse-like environment and hands-on workshops outside.
Multi-modal, packed with engaging content, and on-the-go, Road Trip promises to deliver an unparalleled experience that will inspire a new generation of leaders to take action and propel their communities into a more resilient and abundant future.
