Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) has been selected to plan, design and project manage a US$8m (€5.76m, £4.75m) children’s museum in Beijing, China.

The 2,400sq m (25,833sq ft) Lao Niu Children’s Discovery Center, which will be operated by the China National Children’s Center (CNCC), is scheduled to open in January 2015, and will be located in the Xicheng District of Beijing.

Aimed at engaging children from infancy to age seven, the museum will feature interactive and innovative creative play experiences. “We will provide a wide space of exploration for a child’s mental, physical and emotional development,” said Mike Meyer, JRA senior project director and design lead for the project.

“We look forward to creating another venue for China’s children to better understand themselves, their environment and their world.”

Zhu Baoming, head of the China National Children’s Center (CNCC) – which along with the Lao Niu Foundation and Beijing Normal University awarded the contract to JRA – said the design firm was chosen because it understands children’s needs, shares a similar design philosophy, and has a wealth of experience in China.

Among its projects in China, JRA provided the exhibit design for the children’s portion of the Guangdong Science Center, and worked on a family visitor attraction in the northern Zhejiang province.

The company has recently been working on the design of a theme park in Sochi, Russia – adjacent to the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games – which is nearing completion.