MU-CH Museum of Chemistry
Municipality of Settimo Torinese
- Municipality of Settimo Torinese
OUR SERVICES
- Multimedia set-up
- Exhibition Design
- Interactive Installation
- Interaction Design
- Serious game / Gamification
Amaze, teach and excite are the keywords of MU-CH, a colorful and innovative museum-laboratory where science is learned by touching
To create a place of scientific culture suitable for citizenship, families, children and schools of all levels, where science is discussed in a simple language and understandable by all and especially chemistry.
Housed in the former Siva paint factory – in which Primo Levi worked for years as a chemist, is the MU-CH, the first museum in Europe to offer an interactive tour dedicated to chemistry, a family-friendly place that invites children to have fun and play with science, aimed at arousing curiosity and interest in the scientific world from an early age
In addition to the multimedia path, which with its 28 exhibits explores 5 macro themes, at the MU-CH you will find a planetarium-library to explore space, a laboratory where educational activities on various chemistry and STEAM topics can be carried out, the C Lab, and the Chemistry bar, a 1980s American-bar where chemical reactions instead of cocktails are served.
MU-CH, which, in addition to representing the initials for “Museum” and “Chemistry,” recalls the English “much,” meaning what the museum wants to give its visitors: much – fun, education, creativity, involvement, interactivity.
The setting up
Ground floor
Area A – C-LAB
A laboratory space where visitors can try their hand at building and conducting scientific experiments, a laboratory with interactive whiteboard and equipment for chemical reactions and experiences.
Area B – Lecture Hall
A space for teacher training courses, evenings aimed at the general public concerning science, technology, book presentations, science-related lectures and small theater performances.
Area C – Reading Room and Planetarium
The World’s first library under the stars, where you can read a book as well as observe the celestial vault and a full-dome film explaining how chemical elements were formed.
First floor
Area D – Stairwell
The Light Pin exhibit gives shape to the images of imagination by composing them through colored pixels using plexiglass. The staircase wall features the milestones in the history of chemistry and takes visitors from the origin of alchemy to modern chemistry. The center of the staircase features the elements that quintessentially refer to chemistry and the chemist’s work: glassware, hanging from semi-transparent wires, descending from above. At the top of the staircase is the Colored Discs exhibit, consisting of 6 colored segments of Plexiglas.
Area E – Exhibit Hall Entrance
Levi’s image introduces the room; to the left is a large wall dedicated to the two cornerstones of Chemical science: Lavoisier’s law of conservation of mass, and Mendeleev’s periodic table. Visitors can play with the arm scales and explore the periodic table, spinning the elements to find out where they are found in nature, the electronic configuration, and interesting facts about that element.
Zone 1 – States of matter and gases
The first Exhibit is dedicated to the states of matter: thanks to the simulation given by ping-pong balls, understood as atoms, and the compression of the bound weight left to the visitor’s own will, he or she will see the atoms stirring in the gaseous, liquid and solid states. The introductory totem will allow in-depth study on the rudiments of the subject of Chemistry.
Zone 2 – Electrochemistry
The setting, a small house, evokes the memory of home, the place where electricity is most commonly used. The path takes the visitor to observe an electrical discharge, lightning generated by a plasma sphere, draw with UV using the electrical properties of atoms, become a conductor of electricity and play with electrons.
Zone 3 – Matter
Visitors will find themselves experimenting with matter in various forms: it will be possible to play with the density of matter, examine the cohesion and adhesion forces that are created between atoms and what they can generate, such as soap bubbles, as well as experimenting with properties of very special materials such as ferrofluid, or with a pure element of the periodic table, gallium.
In Area 4 – Molecules you will come into contact with the two most important molecules for life, that of water and DNA, while in Area 5 – Chemical Reactions, you will find a single large thematic exhibit.
Area F – Chemical bar
An 80s American-bar that, instead of cocktails, serves chemical reactions! A lab featuring 10-minute micro-shows and the opportunity to actively play with chemistry.
