Toy Museum

The concept inspired by the board game “snakes and ladders” defines a playful route connecting the UNESCO World Heritage building of the Toy Museum situated in Russian town Sergiev Posad to its surroundings.

Sergiev Posad is a spiritual centre of Russia with its famous Monastery Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, that attracts a lot of visitors each year. The area of the monastery together with the Toy Museum site is a heritage protected by UNESCO. The city is also known from the invention of Matryoshka - a wooden toy known all over the world. The heart of the far-reaching toy crafting history is the Toy Museum building, around which Karres en Brands was asked to make a design. The building, situated on top of the hill at the edge of the river valley, engages in a panoramic view of the Kelar pond and the Monastery.

The design developed by Karres en Brands is a gently sloping elevated wooden pathway which becomes a new connector between the building and the landscape, and between the tourists and inhabitants of the town. The route will meander among the existing and newly planted trees and it will integrate exciting play elements along the way, such as swings, nets and slides. Its curved line guides view towards different directions each time it turns and it finally lands at the lake’s promenade. The project increases the coherence and accessibility of the natural area of lake and enhances the continuity in the big scale landscape. The embankment of the pond is popular with local residents regardless of the season: in the wintertime people are ice skating or sliding down the hill; in the summer people organize picnics, fish, swim, play games or walk.

The path creates a playful threshold between the museum and its surroundings. By connecting touristic route of the Monastery with the river valley routing the museum site becomes a place for both the visitors and the inhabitants of the town. The identity of the monastery, the identity of the river valley and the identity of the Toy Museum overlap thanks to the new connection. The path will be a unique object in the city capable of becoming a condenser for different social groups: both tourist attraction and a place for the townspeople.