Museum of Future Inventions
Conceptual Plan for the Museum Complex
“If Leonardo DaVinci were alive today,
this in the project he would be working on.”
…..
Project Name: The DaVinci Institute – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Concept Overview: We are a species rigorously involved in planning. But for all the time we spend pondering what tomorrow will bring, we commit comparatively little to our understanding and study of the more far-reaching advances that are on the way.
There are no global “centers of the future” where experts and luminaries dwell and strategically plan the future. 
Even more importantly, there are no centers where “average folks” participate in planning. Universities and government agencies are sharing in funding for public education and outreach for science and technology, but the programs grown from this support fall short.
What’s more, today’s futurist organizations are relatively small and poorly managed, and exist mostly as nothing more than a membership society that sponsors occasional events.
Only in recent times has serious discussion in academia embraced futurist thinking. Alvin Toffler shook up the world in 1966 with his famous novel Future Shock. The futurist industry as it exists today is comprised primarily of corporate and government consultants along with a few authors and academics, notably household names like Stephen Hawking, John Naisbitt and perhaps Ray Kurzweil. A list also should include the RAND Corp. think tank. All are well-published, but it is difficult to imagine them engaging in outreach activities and actually becoming involved in a dialogue with the larger public.
By combining a series of unique, experiential destination centers into a single, modern DaVinci-themed complex, and by creating a fun, participatory learning environment to engage a broad spectrum of the population, the DaVinci Institute will achieve its goal of becoming the center of the future.
Eight Dimensions
Museum of Future Inventions – A journey of discovery examines the 10 greatest inventions and how these 
leaps forward dramatically changed the course of history. In 2002 the DaVinci Institute launched a crowd-sourcing project to uncover future inventions. Since its inception, the project has attracted a significant following, drawing thousands of submissions from inventors across the globe. Our original intent was a book that would list and describe the best of these submissions. The project team, however, has come to conclude that a book is too limiting and one-dimensional. The fear is that a passive read would not do justice to the subjects and could not begin to offer the kind of experiences possible. Greater understanding comes from experiencing the future in ways that make it real in the mind. This line of thinking led us to the idea of a Museum.
The Museum will be built around 64 exhibits, each telling the story of a future invention, why it is important, and the positive impact it will have on the world. Using a systematic approach, each future invention will come to life in a vivid, 3-dimensional, multi-sensory experience. A public relations push will drive audience involvement far beyond the in-house experience. Each exhibit will be combined with a real-world competition that offers significant prize money to the first person who successfully meets the challenge. The exhibits will explain the social benefit to mankind and provide information about challenge criteria and how to win a prize.
Mona Lisa Conference Center – Every exhibit in the Museum will be promoted through an annual event. Named after DaVinci’s stunning painting, the Mona Lisa Conference Center will also host corporate meetings and conferences. Each event will be transformed into cutting edge experiences. With meeting spaces cast against a future-tech backdrop, attendees will form an emotional linkage to the idea-rich environment and transformative thinking spaces. The Mona Lisa Conference Center will transform an ordinary event into an extraordinary experience.
DaVinci’s Workshop (Exploritorium-style participatory science museum) – DaVinci’s Workshop will be an 
experimental, hands-on museum designed to spark curiosity – regardless of age or sophistication in science. Each exhibit will be designed to engage people of all backgrounds to explore and experience the technologies affecting their lives, and aims to inspire the innovator in everyone. With hundreds of exhibits to touch, look through, pick up, and tinker with, curiosity will be the visitor’s compass guiding them to endless discoveries.
Vitruvian Cinemas (Experiential Dinner Theater) – Great food served in a setting offering movies on-demand – Catering to a new generation of people who have come to expect on-demand entertainment, the Vitruvian Cinemas will be architected as a series of many small theaters where visitors will be able to select the movie they want to see, picked from a menu of thousands of choices, and others will have the opportunity to join them as the movie is being prepared for viewing. Lunch and dinner menus will feature a variety of popular meals and refreshments prepared fresh in the Vitruvian kitchens and served directly to guests as they enjoy a new dimension in the theater-going experience.
Biblioteca Alexandria (Library of the Future) – Creating a path to the ultimate informational experience – Libraries in the future will not only be places where people come to learn and find important pieces of information, but they will be a gathering place where people work and learn from each other, test-beds for new technology where people will experiment and bring new creations to life, communication centers that extend far beyond the walls of a single building, and a working laboratory for building visions and presenting it to the world.
Tuscany Bazaar (Open Marketplace) – Unusual shopping experiences centered around an open marketplace – Every morning a new set of vendors will gather to set up shop and sell their products, pitch their companies, and test out new ideas. Each day, as the doors open to the public, visitors will witness the unveiling of an entirely new shopping experience filled with fresh ideas, colorful new displays, and energized merchants wanting to make an impression. Because all of the spaces will only be made available on a daily basis, a fluid and changing shopping experience will be guaranteed.
Leonardo’s Laboratory (Experimental Back Lot Studio) – Since the future is always changing, the complex will always be in a state of trying to reinvent itself, and Leonardo’s Laboratory will be the place where inventive minds converge to work on next generation projects, exhibits, films, presentations and experiments. Rather than cloaking this work in some mysterious back rooms, tours will be conducted of the work in progress, telling the stories of project failures as well as successes, giving visitors a historical perspective of the Museum as well as a preview of things to come.
Castle Electronica (Multiplayer Game Tournament Center) – The ultimate game tournament center – Castle Electronica will be an arena-style multiplayer game tournament center. Since most games are base on competitions, The Castle will be designed to house large annual competitions in a Coliseum-like facility. With multiple jumbo screens blasting all the gaming action and commentators known as “shoutcasters,” providing live play-by-play, championship audiences will be immersed in the fierce video game competition, rooting for their favorite players and games. Celebrity appearances, music and entertainment, and interactive booths from sponsors will add to the spectacle, ensuring that the entertainment level is set to “maximum.”
A Different Kind of Museum Experience
Target Audience: The DaVinci Institute audience will bridge the full spectrum of the corporate/family audience while it spans the spectrum of traveling/local participants. A four pronged marketing approach will focus on corporate conferences, electronic game tournaments, tourists, and local top-of-the-mind awareness.
Corporations will be invited to use the next generation conference center and participants will be able to immerse themselves in a stimulating environment tapping into unparalleled levels of creativity. Companies will be attracted to the venue, the setting and the experience as a way for employees and staff to recharge their batteries and add juice to their circuits. Attendees will be encouraged to bring their families along and participate in the adjacent activity centers.
Visitation Cycles: In studying a variety of cultural and entertainment centers, we looked at why some attractions have higher success in drawing return visits. We began by analyzing the attributes of attractions with high frequency visitation cycles and comparing them to the attributes of attractions with low frequency visitation cycles. For example, the frequency with which people visit cultural centers such as museums and zoos may be as long as 2-4 years, while the visitation cycle for movie theaters and recreation centers may be only a matter of days.
In studying the differences of a wide range of attractions, eight common attributes were identified as being key components of high frequency attractions. While no single attraction will contain all of these attributes, the combined power of eight vastly different attractions in a fluid, changing environment will make this a constantly compelling place to visit. These attributes are as follows:
- Constantly Changing – Every day is a new and different happening.
- Entertaining – Exciting, fun, and engaging on every level.
- Educational – Intellectually stimulating environment that is too diverse and too large to be absorbed in one or several visits. Learn while being entertained.
- Participation – Visitors are actively involved in the experience.
- Shopping – A changing marketplace filled with hands-on merchants who have a stake in every sale. Visitors have the ability to take part of their experience home with them.
- Community Gathering Place – A place where people with common interests will meet and engage in conversations.
- Sports and Other Physically and Intellectually Competitive Activities – Both viewing and becoming involved in the competitive experience.
- Good Food, Inviting Atmosphere – A good dining experience both prolongs the visit and increases the frequency of visitation.
Using these eight high-frequency attributes and carefully mixing them into eight primary attractions we will have achieved the exact proportions of entertainment, education, and social magnetism needed to build a successful, long-range enterprise. Because of the changing nature of this facility, it will truly be a laboratory of the future human experience.
For more information contact:
The DaVinci Institute
PO Box 270315
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 666-4133
