After announcing plans in January to develop a new US$40m (€34m, £26.3m) facility overlooking the Missouri River, the Gateway to Science Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, has revealed new details for its ambitious project as it aims to expand its appeal to a wider audience.

Scheduled to open in Q1 of 2017, a team made up of US-based HGA architects and North Dakota-based JLG architects are behind the designs for the new facility, which is centred around interactivity.

Designed to incorporate different types of learning for multiple audiences, from children to adults, a capital campaign for the project is now underway to facilitate the move from the High Prairie Arts Center in Bismarck to the new 65,000sq ft (6,000sq m) facility, which will sit on a hill on the bluff of the river.

Included in the proposal are a number of interactive exhibits, including a maze navigated by simple machinery, an exhibit for preschool children, classroom labs with a public viewing area and kinetic sculptures serving as movable artworks. There is also an exhibit where children can design their own aircrafts and a model of a reservoir system that allows visitors to generate energy, send water to a city, storage water in towers or implement flood protection.

In addition, displays on transportation, energy, health, space, agriculture, nanotechnology and weather will be included in the plans, which look at how different sciences are applied throughout the local community.

Gallery space where the exhibits are displayed will grow from the 2,500sq ft (232sq m) currently available to 27,000sq ft (2,500sq m). Other facilities in the new building will include a 200-seat theatre, a new staff and an administration space. The cost of installing the proposed exhibitions will be around US$7m (€6.4m, £4.5m).