Ralph Appelbaum Associates

RAA won the competition for the redesign of the Evolution and Ocean Halls for the Rosenstein Museum of the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart. Over two years, we created two immersive interactive rooms, which set the foundation for the revision of the rest of the permanent exhibition.

Both halls are characterized by unique large-scale objects that can only be exhibited in these two halls. The Ocean Hall is dominated by a 13-meter-long model of a female sei whale, while the Evolution Hall includes the taxidermy of an African elephant bull, as well as a skeleton of a European forest elephant that died about 100,000 years ago.

The Evolution Hall explores evolutionary relationships and processes. In the center of the room stands an interactive media table, around which six thematic islands are grouped, with large-format primate-like vitrines giving room to real-life looking taxidermy specimens, and via a long so-called mediation belt with many interactives, infographics, and hands-on objects, highlighting aspects of evolutionary processes and the influence of humans.