Back to the Ice Age

Become an Ice Age Hunter in this exciting family exhibition

Is our view on the Ice Age correct? And what would it be like to be around during the ice age? Questions like the are at the base of the exhibition design for ICE AGE. Visitors take a trip together with Bor and Veer, two children living during the ice age, in this interactive exhibition. They discover that some stereotypes of the Ice age aren’t completely accurate.

We aimed to develop a very interactive exhibition, besides designing a beautiful spatial experience. We worked closely together with Harmen van Straaten, who writes and illustrates children’s books.

When you get to the first exhibition area, everything is white and full of ice, just like you’d imagine the Ice age to be. The wind is howling in your ears. The white references the melting ice cap that signalled the beginning of the Ice age. Following the icy space, you enter the much warmer tundra, which, contrary to popular belief, is also part of the Ice age. It wasn’t snowing all the time, nor was everything covered in ice.

When stepping into the cave next, all of your senses are provoked. You lose the sense of being in a museum. In here, its full of sounds, dripping water, flutes and drums, and when you’re eyes have gotten used to the darkness youstand face to face with an actual bear.

Client


Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden

Term: 1 October 2014 - 31 May 2015

Year: 2014

Location: National Museum of Antiquities

rmo.nl

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Synergique on our family exhibition ‘Ice Age’. They quickly get hang of the content and the requirements, and transformed them into creative solutions that were exactly as I wanted – but that I could have never imagined myself.”

Anna de Wit - Project Leader National Museum of Antiquities

The Ice Age in a nutshell

Take a tour with Bor and Veer and step into a new world. Endure the freezing temperatures, hunt down a mammoth and decrypt real ice age art.
 

Complete all tests and receive your Ice Age Diploma.

Children are emerged in the Ice Age in all exhibition areas through interactive installations. They can make fire, hunt like Bor or Veer or combine different cave drawings to make a real animated film.

They can also take a number of tests, each rewarded with a stamp. Done them all? You’ll receive an Ice Age Diploma, because for a brief moment you’ve experienced what it’s like to travel back in time for 20.000 years.