La Maison des Histoires (The House of Stories)
Located in Paris, The House of Stories is a literary museum designed for children from birth to age six. Created by Camille Kiejman and l’école des loisirs, one of France’s leading children’s publishers, it opened its first location inside the Chantelivre bookstore in 2023, followed by a second location in the Bastille neighborhood.
During each visit, children step inside immersive environments inspired by beloved children’s books, gather for live story time performances, meet authors, celebrate birthdays, and visit the café and bookshop.
From Book to Play
The design challenge for the space was deceptively simple: How do you transform a two-dimensional picture book into a three-dimensional play experience—while helping children fall in love with books, sometimes before they can even read?
Each book became its own distinct universe, with a unique play experience drawn directly from its story and illustrations. At the same time, the individual environments needed to come together as a cohesive museum space. The goal was to capture the voice of each author and illustrator and translate the heart of each story into a physical environment children could enter, explore, and make their own.
Concept Sketch
My design process began by immersing myself in the story and seeing the space through a child’s eyes. I looked for the moments, characters, settings, and details that offer the richest opportunities for play, then distilled those ideas into hand-drawn concept sketches.
Sketching is my favorite part of the process. It’s the moment when the illustrations on the page begin to become three-dimensional environments—and when I can start imagining how a child might move through, interact with, and experience the story.
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![THE BABY - Jeanne Ashbe]()
THE BABY - Jeanne Ashbe
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CHIEN POURRI : Colas Gutman & Marc Boutavant
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AU FEU PETIT PIERRE : Adrien Albert
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LA MAISON DANS LES BOIS : Inga Moore
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THE TOUTOU : Dorothée de Monfreid
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STORY TIME
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THE BOOK OF SOUNDS : Soledad Bravi
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SIMON SUPERLAPIN : Stephanie Blake
The Award
The Children in Museums Award is an international award presented by the European Museum Academy and Hands On! International, recognizing excellence in museum experiences created for children and young people. Established in 2011, the award celebrates outstanding work across children’s museums, science centers, and cultural institutions, with a particular emphasis on creativity, learning, and meaningful experiences for young audiences.
“The judges felt this is an outstanding project, demonstrating that a private, independent cultural institution for early childhood can achieve excellence without any public funding. It serves as a model for independent private initiatives of this kind internationally – illustrating how publishing expertise, artistic co-creation and museum practice can be woven into a self-sustaining, literary ecosystem for young children. Its screen-free environment encourages a close connection between parent, child and the physical book, providing the foundation for a ifetime love of reading, critical at a time when reading for pleasure, particularly among young people, is in decline. For these reasons it is a worthy winner of the Award this year.”
The award is a meaningful recognition of what The House of Stories set out to achieve from the beginning: creating a place where children can step inside the stories they love and discover the joy of books.