Living planet

Understanding biodiversity and ecosystems through playful investigation.

Museum of Natural Sciences, Brussels (BE), 2020

Wide-angle view of a gallery filled with taxidermy animals arranged along curved white arches, showcasing biodiversity across species and environments.

Overview

The Living Planet exhibition guides visitors through an educational journey into the ecosystems that make Earth both vibrant and deeply interconnected.

Spread across two floors, the exhibition presents more than 800 animal species, highlighting the delicate balance between living organisms and their environments.

These connections are explored through interactive screens, projections, and immersive activities designed to deepen understanding through hands-on engagement.

  • Family of four gathered around a touchscreen in the natural history gallery, as the mother points toward a taxidermy animal in the exhibit, surrounded by a diverse array of mounted species.
  • Taxidermy dingo displayed on a white platform, surrounded by bears and wild cat specimens in an open exhibition space.
  • Young woman pointing toward a group of taxidermy animals while standing next to an interactive screen displaying species-related content.
  • Young boy in a red t-shirt looking up in awe, surrounded by taxidermy animals in a white exhibition space.
  • Woman wearing a face mask pointing toward an animal specimen while two young children lean over a low railing in a gallery filled with large taxidermy mammals.
  • A cheetah and an African wild dog stand side by side on a display platform, surrounded by various birds and mammals.
  • Teenage visitor wearing a mask and green checkered shirt, engaging with an angled touchscreen among mounted animal specimens.
  • Close-up of a touchscreen interface titled “Vivre sur la Terre” (“Living on Earth”) with a visual network of animal images and taxidermy specimens in the background.
  • Mother and young child standing in front of a deer specimen while the child gestures excitedly, with other visitors and animal displays in the background.

Contribution

I shaped the exhibition’s experience framework and UX/UI approach, alongside the visual, multimedia, and audiovisual design, creating interactive and immersive installations that translate complex scientific concepts into accessible and engaging content for a wide audience.

I coordinated internal and external teams across the Benelux region, combining art direction with hands-on design production throughout the year-and-a-half development process. My role included defining a structured interaction system linking large volumes of scientific content to the physical specimens on display, ensuring consistency across screens, projections, and immersive installations.

The process involved iterative design, prototyping, and continuous coordination to align content, interaction design, and visual execution. Delivery took place during the European COVID-19 lockdown, strengthening my ability to adapt workflows and ensure continuity under non-standard operational constraints.

  • Two young children exploring a yellow circular hands-on table with small animal models, including one placed on top, tactile elements, and circular openings.
  • A woman seated at a circular yellow interactive station using a touchscreen surrounded by animal figures, with mounted taxidermy animals in the background.
  • Child interacting with a touchscreen embedded in a curved table showing a game about identifying camouflaged animals, with taxidermy specimens displayed nearby.
  • Adult and child interacting with a yellow circular hands-on table featuring small colored blocks inside a transparent dome, within a gallery of taxidermy animals.
  • Two children examining yellow hands-on tables with circular openings and small animal models placed inside.
  • Visitors gather around a large immersive projection showing abstract, colourful nature imagery and a white branching structure in the center.
  • Wide view of a museum gallery with circular display platforms presenting taxidermy animals, interactive screens, and low yellow tables integrated among the specimens.
  • Close-up of a touchscreen showing a Dutch-language interactive explaining how oceans produce oxygen, with visuals of phytoplankton and coral reefs.
  • Curved wall projection displaying four large interactive touchscreens, each in front of a section of animated visuals representing different ecosystems, such as grasslands, forests, and ocean life.

Key achievements

  • Defined the experience framework, UX/UI and interaction design and strategy for a large-scale natural science exhibition.
  • Built structured interaction and content systems connecting digital stations to physical specimens.
  • Coordinated multidisciplinary teams across a long and content-heavy process.
  • Applied iterative prototyping to validate interaction flows across screens, projections, and immersive installations.
  • Ensured consistency across content, interactions, and touchpoints within a multi-level exhibition space.
  • Integrated inclusive design principles to support diverse public audiences.
  • Maintained delivery quality while navigating COVID-19 operational constraints.
  • A woman stands in a dimly lit gallery space, interacting with a touchscreen in front of a natural history exhibit featuring an elk and a scenic tundra backdrop, with wolves and other animals displayed behind her and in the background.
  • Close-up of a horizontal touchscreen showing an interface with a rainforest image, a location map, biodiversity stats, and a finger selecting one of the circular data points.
  • A woman engaging with a large digital table displaying an interactive globe, surrounded by nature-themed projections of underwater vegetation and marine life.
  • A woman standing in an immersive room with walls covered in large-scale projections of forest and mountain environments, surrounded by vivid color and light.
  • Immersive installation showing high-resolution projections of a chipmunk on one wall and a grazing reindeer on the other, wrapping around freestanding structures in the space.

Credits

Role: Art Director | Lead Designer
Employer: Studio Louter
Client: Museum of Natural Sciences
Photography: Museum + Studio Louter

© All rights reserved to Studio Louter

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Young man standing in front of a glass case containing a tall historical measuring instrument, examining it closely.

Herman Boerhaave

Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden (NL)