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Swim in a Giant Ball Pit and Dig Through Foam at This Interactive “Fun House”

Last updated 6th July 2018

To much fanfare, the National Building Museum has opened Fun House, a new, interactive exhibition designed by Snarkitecture. The latest in the museum’s imaginative, family-friendly Summer Block Party series of temporary structures inside its historic Great Hall, Fun House is open through September 3, 2018.

The National Building Museum inspires curiosity about the world we design and build. Through exhibitions and educational programs for all ages, they show how the built world has power to shape our lives, communities and futures.

Fun House is Snarkitecture’s first comprehensive museum exhibition, examining the prolific activities of the studio. Curated by Italy-based Maria Cristina Didero, the heart of the exhibition is presented within a Snarkitecture-designed house — a freestanding structure that recalls and re-imagines the idea of the traditional home. As visitors walk through the house, the rooms convey the ten year story of Snarkitecture while underlining the studio’s peculiar, yet accessible way of reinterpreting the built environment. It features fun past exhibits by Snarkitecture, such as Dig, where insulation was carved into a cavernous space using simple tools and Drift, which features giant inflated tubes bundled together. It also has a large kidney-shaped pool filled with hundreds of thousands of recyclable plastic balls visitors can “swim” through.

Fun House is complemented by a full slate of events and exhibitions at the National Building Museum throughout the summer. Admission includes one hour of timed entry in Fun House and admission to all other current National Building Museum exhibitions:

Free: National Building Museum Members
$16: Adult
$13: Youth (ages 3-17), Student with ID, Senior (ages 60+), AARP Member with ID
$10: Blue Star (ages 3+; limit 6 per family with military ID)

See a Time-Lapse of the Fun House Construction