Experiential Exhibition

In winter, Hennesteck is traditionally a popular ski resort for families. The strategic goal is to position the place also as a summer destination. The already existing zipline and bike trail are now joined by our knowledge-based outdoor parcours for the whole family to form a widespread “Alp Adventure” on the mountain.

On the parcours, illustrative-narrative play stations invite into playful interaction with nature. Especially 8 to 12 year olds learn interesting facts about the regional cultural landscape. Our outdoor exhibition makes the local mountain of the municipality of Annaberg an attractive excursion destination in the Lower Austrian Alps.

Mascot Niki accompanies the little guests through the “Alp Adventure”. Well-informed about the surroundings, the gender neutral fox character, who aims to appeal to all children equally, lays a trail from play station to play station. It starts in the valley, followed by a variety of stops spread all over the mountain.

With the new offers, the area also needs a good overview – also of the existing infrastructure and services. The orientation system, made of natural materials easily leads to the stations, hiking trails and various possibilities to explore the area. Niki gives you notice in the signal color red to point out a game or a task in the context of the “Alp Adventure” along the way.

Our design concept for the play stations combines storytelling with illustrations and hands-on installations to create an interactive exhibition. Flowers, animals or trees become talking nature creatures and go into direct dialogue with the children. Through their personal experience, the exploration of information about the local flora and fauna becomes a playful entertainment.

Similar to the characters of the “alpine flower journey,” the typical trees from the densely wooded region also interact with the children. A fold-out encyclopedia tells the children interesting details about maple, spruce, fir and much more from a first-person perspective. For each tree species, colors guide children over large tree steps and invite them to balance over the trunks to the encyclopedia at the end.

Our mountain experience also invites adults to enjoy the landscape. For this purpose, durable landscape furniture has been ergonomically and modularly developed and gently integrated into the landscape at spots with the most beautiful views. Local materials and production in a local carpenter’s workshop make them especially sustainable.

Two of the furniture installations are “listening benches” – audio stations especially for children. In the two audio stations, the mountain, mother nature, a stone figure, a cow, chair lift operator Peter and farmer Georg tell stories in six entertaining podcast snippets – traditions and rules on the mountain, as well as interesting facts about the Hennesteck become an entertaining radio play.

An important theme of the stations is the alpine farm of the Hennesteck in summer. Our water playground at the reservoir at the summit lets you meet cows, sheep and chickens at the “alp well”. We have designed the wooden animals as information carriers. Thus, children learn about the needs of the animals, which they playfully learn to care for properly at the water fountain playground.

At the end of the “Alp Adventure”, children have gained insight into various aspects of the cultural landscape at Hennesteck. A detailed magazine for children takes the knowledge into even further depth. The topics present in the outdoor exhibition are embedded in the magazine through games, short stories and illustrations.

The magazine is included in the “discovery bag”, which is equipped with colored pencils and research objects such as a magnifying glass to explore the alpine nature. The bag invites to take the experience back home, and continue it with the numerous games in the magazine.