> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.killscreen.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# National Building Museum builds giant maze to open your eyes
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/national-building-museum-builds-giant-maze-open-your-eyes/
- Published: 2014-07-10T13:08:01.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-26T10:36:04.000Z
- Description: Get lost.
- Author: Jamin Warren
- Tags: News, Architecture, maze, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

Their first large scale installation since 1988, the [National Building Museum](http://www.nbm.org/?ref=killscreen.com) in Washington D.C. tapped Danish architectural design firm [BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group](http://www.big.dk/?ref=killscreen.com) to create an enormous concavernous maze with 18-foot walls in their atrium. Aptly titled “The Big Maze,” the piece was inspired by ancient labyrinths, garden and hedge mazes of 17th and 18th-century Europe, and modern American corn mazes.

For many game designers, the first thing you build is a good maze. From *Colossal Cave Adventure* to *Maniac Mansion* to *Wolfenstein* to *Dark Souls*‘ Blightown, mazes have been a de facto way to allure and confuse players. And while it’s easy to build an impossible maze (just add complexity), creating a maze that both encourages people to continue while frustrating them enough to be a challenge is very, very difficult. [As game designer Martin Neruka wrote](http://www.gamearch.com/2012/09/16/archetypical-spaces-part-3-the-maze/?ref=killscreen.com), “The Maze is not a place of habitation for the visitor. He is a stranger and clearly not at home here.” Striking that balance of welcome and rejection is a tough line to walk.

But Bjarke Ingels wanted to invert that feeling of displacement: “The concept is simple: as you travel deeper into a maze, your path typically becomes more convoluted. what if we invert this scenario and create a maze that brings clarity and visual understanding upon reaching the heart of the labyrinth?”

[The maze will be open until September 1st.](http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/the-big-maze.html?ref=killscreen.com)

![](https://killscreen.com/previously/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bjarke-ingels-group-big-maze-national-building-museum-washington-designboom-05.jpg)

![](https://killscreen.com/previously/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bjarke-ingels-group-big-maze-national-building-museum-washington-designboom-04.jpg)

![](https://killscreen.com/previously/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bjarke-ingels-group-big-maze-national-building-museum-washington-designboom-03.jpg)

![](https://killscreen.com/previously/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bjarke-ingels-group-big-maze-national-building-museum-washington-designboom-02.jpg)

*[\[](http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/the-big-maze.html?ref=killscreen.com)h/t [Designboom](http://www.designboom.com/architecture/bjarke-ingels-group-big-maze-national-building-museum-washington-d-c-07-09-2014/?ref=killscreen.com)\]*