De Waanzinnige Boomhut

Treehouse Madness – Designing an Immersive Children’s Exhibition

During this project, I worked on developing a playful, immersive exhibition for the Waterline Museum, based on the book The 13-Storey Treehouse. We adapted the original exhibition from Fort Napoleon in Belgium and reimagined it to fit Fort bij Vechten and the Waterline Museum’s setting.

My role involved transforming and expanding on the existing installations to better suit the new location, the theme of “party,” and the expectations of our young audience. For example:

New elements included a paper plane toss game and a fully immersive weather room, where children could press buttons to change the room’s lighting, sound, and projections to match different weather conditions.

We merged two interactive games—a “lava floor” and a tactile object wall—into one dynamic play zone.

The forest setting from the original exhibition became “Jill’s Animal Forest,” where kids had to count hidden animals, inspired by the book’s characters.

I was also responsible for:

• Concept development and creative adaptation of the exhibition layout
• Designing and writing the children’s puzzle and activity booklet
• Creating banners and promotional posters used throughout the museum and exhibition
• Taking the pictures of the official opening with the author Andy Griffiths

The exhibition opening was a great success, with enthusiastic responses from visiting children, the publisher Lannoo, and even the author Andy Griffiths, who traveled from Australia to attend the event.