The V&A’s Museum of Childhood is to get a £13m revamp to create spaces that are less about nostalgia and more about encouraging young people to change the world.

Details and concept drawings were revealed on Monday of a radical re-imagining of what the building in Bethnal Green, east London, should be.

The building is to close for two years and when it reopens in 2022, there will be more objects going on display from the V&A’s wider collections. They include a Superman costume worn by Christopher Reeve, Beatrix Potter’s illustrations of Peter Rabbit and a life-size horse puppet, Joey, from the West End play War Horse.

Students with an original costume from the 1987 film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Photograph: Getty

There will also be examples of contemporary design, such as Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun solar lamp, on display to encourage young people to experiment and dream up their own ideas.

“This will be a V&A for young visitors,” said Philippa Simpson, director of design, estate and future plan. “If you imagine South Kensington but rethought totally through the eyes of a child … that’s what we are heading for.”

The aim was also to create a more forward-thinking museum. “For the last few decades it has been a site of nostalgia for a lot of people who love it because they show their kids the toys they played with when they were young,” Simpson said.

When it reopens there will be more emphasis on unlocking the potential of future generations, the museum added

“We want to empower children to realise that every act of creativity is wondrous,” said Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A. “Whether it’s self-expression through their clothes, building a world on Minecraft, or launching a school climate strike.”

The museum opened as the Bethnal Green Museum of Science and Arts in 1872, becoming the V&A Museum of Childhood in 1974.

The plan is to create spaces that are more open, exciting and immersive. Photograph: Mike Booth / Alamy/Alamy

Many visitors find the Bethnal Green building a dark and cold place so the plan is to create spaces which are more open, exciting and immersive, said the museum.

Concept designs by AOC Architecture show rooms inspired by Alice inWonderland and the museum’s main hall reimagined as a town square.

Simpson stressed they were “not chucking the baby out with the bath water” and there would still be popular and nostalgic favourites – such as the collection of dolls houses – but displayed differently. “It is about always looking forward rather than just looking back.”

Doors will close on 11 May and reopen in 2022 in what will be the museum’s 150th anniversary year. On the May bank holiday before, a three-day festival, RE-INVENT, will be held to signal the new vision.

Simpson said it had been impossible to avoid closure because of the scale of the project and the need for total modernisation.

Architectural render of the new Play gallery. Photograph: V&A Museum of Childhood

“We are looking at every single corner of it and bringing a lot more space into public use,” she said. “It is basically a big Victorian shed so you can’t close off one bit without closing another so we just had to run at it.”

There will be three new galleries. “Play” will include everything from the crowdfunded card game Exploding Kittens to chess.

“Imagine” will include exploring stories behind characters, whether Paddington Bear, Pikachu or the Loch Ness monster.

“Design” will include an artist-in-residence programme entitled the Designer’s House as well as displays which feature examples of contemporary design such as the micro-scooter.

The museum stressed there would still be room for popular and nostalgic favourites such as Paddington Bear. Photograph: Barnard, Pip/V&A Museum of Childhood

Hunt said the aim was offer a free and outstanding day out for children. “Beloved by the local community, but in need of modernisation, this ambitious transformation will enable the V&A’s museum of childhood to unlock its huge potential to nurture the potential of future generations and become a global champion of children’s creativity.”

The Bethnal Green revamp is part of wider activity in to east London by the V&A with a new five-storey museum scheduled to open on the Olympic site in Stratford in 2023. Ten minutes walk away will be the V&A’s new storage and research centre.