Architecture studio Muf has created a new interactive gallery at London's Science Museum, featuring playground slides, a quilted theatre and a huge model of the solar system.
As the first of several new galleries set to open at the museum, the Wonderlab invites visitors to experiment with over 50 different models and objects, ranging from an oak tree studded with magnets to a functioning laboratory.

The Muf team ? best known for curating the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2010 ? treated the architectural design as an extension of the exhibition, aiming to create an immersive, playground-like experience.

They stripped back all the suspended ceilings and partitions within the third-floor Statoil Gallery, creating a more open-plan 2,300-square-metre space. This space is divided up into different zones, with visitors free to wander to and fro, encountering a variety of objects on the way.

The team ? led by directors Katherine Clarke and Liza Fior ? describe the result as "a rich landscape" that encourages visitors "to roam guided by what catches their eye, rather than a pre-determined route and narrative".
"Long vistas and a lack of rigid demarcation in the space encourage visitors to make connections between the different scientific phenomena and to move freely through the gallery," they said.

The largest architectural intervention is the new wood-framed theatre, featuring a silver interior and a quilted red exterior. As well as the ...