Houtopia

Renovation and new concept for the famous 100% children's recreational and educational centre dedicated to the 5 senses.

After 22 years in operation and more than 650,000 visitors, the famous recreational and educational centre is changing its concept and getting a new look. A concept that puts the 5 senses in the spotlight with original activities designed to awaken and develop children aged 2 to12...

A complete renovation of the interior space

The reception area, with its brand new shop, the visitors' area and the cafeteria have all had a facelift.

In all, 80 sensory experiences are on offer in the 650 m² educational hall. Shoeless tour of the new sensory area: back to your senses...

Discover the inauguration in pictures...

What role did our team play in this project?

The renovation of the Houtopia centre was carried out under a public procurement contract divided into two lots. The first involved restoring the building and the second setting up the sensory area. PLUO took charge of the latter.

In concrete terms, this involved creating all the scenographic furniture for presenting the 'interactives', i.e. the 80 sensory experiences developed by the scenographer and the education team.

But also to carry out the finishing touches (painting, floor covering, electricity, lighting, etc.), all the exhibition signage and integrate all the audiovisual equipment. Not to mention the refurbishment of the reception, shop and cafeteria.

Furniture designed to suit the activities and the public

Working hand in hand with the scenographic architects, our technical design office studied the best solutions for producing their furniture sketches.

Of course, each piece of furniture has its own special features: access hatch, air circulation, IT integration, etc.

Given the 'public', all the furniture had to be solid, easy to dismantle, transportable and easy to refurbish. The corners of the furniture all had to be 'softened', so the paint had to be resistant and natural...

All the furniture was then produced in our joinery and paint workshop.

Coordinating and adapting our schedule according to the other parties involved

Our teams had to coordinate the in-house design schedule with the schedule for completing the installation of the furniture and other work by subcontractors, as they were dependent on the delivery of the interactives. In order to meet the delivery date, production and installation of the various zones were managed simultaneously and progressively.

After 3 months of project study and 3 and a half months of production and installation, we're delighted to have been able to contribute to this great project and hope that many children and families will enjoy it!