Photo: Kevin Allen courtesy National Building Museum

Family Build Day takes place on Saturday, February 3rd from 11am-3pm at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, 2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220.  This event is now full.  

What will this event be like?

Kids can learn about careers in architecture, engineering, construction, design and experience a variety of fun hands-on building stations.  They can also explore the architectural elements of The Branch such as arches, towers, stairs and room shapes and build a new room using unusual materials, as well as roam the gardens of The Branch with a landscape architect and create their own garden design.  Kids will even be able to create a design plan for a new structure and build a 3D model to take home.

Meet an Engineer: Bridges
Work with an engineer to learn about bridge-building techniques! Using common craft materials,
build a bring between two podiums that can support the weight of toy cars. You’ll learn about
what makes a bridge stand up, the differences between styles of bridges, and where they are
located.

Meet an Architect: Thinking in 3D
Learn from an architect on how to transform an idea in to a drawing, and finally into a model. Your
architect will show you about scale, and how it can help you go from idea to reality! You’ll
practice different visual abbreviations, and look at different kinds of models. You’ll discuss and
make different kinds of model structures – functional, ugly, and decorative!

Meet a Landscape Architect: Designing Outdoors
Starting with the original drawings of The Branch House’s back gardens, you’ll learn about the
different ways to design and build outside. You will then create your own design for the back
gardens, and lay them out at ¼ scale using a variety of props and tools.

Meet a Builder: Working at the Human Scale
Working with a builder, you will learn about different types of joinery and styles of construction.
Working at full scale, you will work together to build a giant structure out of cardboard. In fact, you
will build a full-size structure in our galleries!

The Details

The event is $10 per child, parents attend for free.

Spaces are limited. Register early at: branchmuseum.org/events/family-build-day

This event is co-presented by The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design and Science Matters, an educational program of the Community Idea Stations.

Family Build Day is inspired by the new PBS Series – “Impossible Builds”

“Impossible Builds” will air on WCVE PBS, Wednesdays, February 7, 14 and 21 at 10:00 PM.  For more on the series and additional architecture programming go to ideastations.org/Impossible -Builds.