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Architecture

2017

Photographer : Adam Mork

CEBRA’s comprehensive extension and refurbishment of Denmark’s national science centre transforms an introvert former industrial building into an engaging and open house of culture and learning. CEBRA’s project is characterized by an architecture that aims at spurring the public’s interest in science and technology by creating tangible connection between building expression and content. An engaging environment that functions as a hub for experiential learning, research and cultural experiences, including a special focus on outreach and collaborations with educational institutions and businesses.

When Experimentarium opened to the public in 1991, it was a science centre incorporated in a redbrick bottling plant building from the 1880’s. From the beginning, the Experimentarium presented thought-provoking exhibitions with the purpose of bridging the gap between science and learning. Nevertheless, its vision of cultural empowerment was confined by the historical product-assembly layout. The science centre needed rethinking. The extensive transformation project focuses on expanding and improving the centre's facilities, including doubling the available exhibition areas to accommodate 16 interactive exhibits. It also results in new instructional facilities, laboratories and workshops, two auditoriums, a café and picnic-area, a creative working environment for 120 employees and a large roof terrace for outdoor activities.

The aim of the design was to radically change of Experimentarium’s architectural expression, thereby opening the building towards the city and showcasing the wonders of science in a recurring narrative throughout its architecture. A stacked configuration of rectilinear volumes that are offset from the historic brick base expresses the various functions of the internal programme, seemingly breaking out of the existing structure. These upper volumes are clad with lightweight aluminium panels featuring a perforated pattern based on the way air and fluid behave when they encounter resistance. Another key aspect of the project was enhancing the connection between the building and the city, which is partly achieved through huge expanses of glazing incorporated into the main facade. The dynamic composition and light materiality of the boxes form a counterpoint to the visual weight of the preserved redbrick facades of the base, thereby highlighting the meeting between old and new, between past and future.

The project is based on the notion that there is an architectural field of tension between the old and the new, in which they highlight each other’s presence and become each other’s precondition. Experimentarium’s architecture illustrates the fact that scientists often return to a historic problem, but at a higher level of knowledge, which leads to a more and more clear understanding of a scientific subject. Experimentarium translates this in its architecture, materials and technical solutions by rethinking the historic structure while at the same time preserving its essence. Thus, the conceptual launch pad for the meeting between new and old is the idea that the future rests on history, in the same way that the dynamic composition of staggered boxes rests on its historic foundation.

Hellerup,Arhus,Denmark

Architects	:	CEBRA
Area	:	26.850 sq.m
Year	:	2017
Website	:	cebraarchitecture.dk

A key aspect of the project was to provide an environment that combines learning, culture and attraction - where science communication is based on public engagement and a hands-on, experiential approach to learning. Therefore, the interior functions are organized focusing on synergies between different functions to create an active and vivid building. For instance, the upper floors are designed as flexible “serving trays”, which create a malleable and adaptable architectural framework to be populated and continuously altered to fit the spatial requirements of changing exhibitions, special events and functional needs. The auditoriums, instructional spaces, labs and workshops are connected to these open and centrally located exhibition areas. Together, they create a diverse learning landscape for cross-disciplinary projects, alternating between instruction, research, production and presentation.

Two atriums connect the “trays” to the front-of-house and back-of-house functions respectively. Each atrium contains a distinctive sculptural staircase. Their design ensures a coherent flow across floors and communicates the building’s scientific remit at the same time. Located just inside the entrance and visible for passers-by on the street, the dramatic Helix staircase welcomes visitors and ascends to four separate floors. The sweeping 100 metres long staircase was produced from 160 tonnes of steel and is clad with 10 tonnes of copper. Its organic form and meandering path are contrasted in the second atrium’s mirror-clad Vector staircase that connects two exhibition floors and illustrates the shortest connection between two points.

Both the renovation of the existing structure and the extension are executed with a focus on energy consumption, indoor climate, operation and life-cycle costs to ensure a sustainable building that lives up to contemporary standards and forms an integral part of Experimentarium’s identity. As an example, the façade panels consist of 50% recycled aluminium that partly comes from cans and bottle caps, which again highlights the meeting between the building’s past as a soft drink bottling plant and future as innovative science centre.

The architectural project is characterized by a consistent use of scientific symbolism and elegant technical solutions with richness of detail. The solutions are the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration process involving architects, engineers, contractors, scientists and Experimentarium staff. This approach allowed the design team to meet the complex functional and technical requirements of the building and to create a tangible connection between the building’s physical framework and the institution’s own DNA at the same time. For instance, a workshop with Jakob Bohr, professor at DTU Nanotech, inspired the architects to work with the Helix staircase as an abstract version of the DNA strand's structure. The result is a playful and distinctive architectural element that links biology and mathematics with a functional solution for the visitor flow.

A similar creative process led to the characteristic façade design. Architects, engineers and Experimentarium staff designed a perforation pattern that illustrates fluid dynamics from the field of physics. The outcome meets the building envelope’s functional and technical demands in an architectural expression that is embedded into the overall scientific narrative. The stacked volumes contain several different functions with varying requirements. Thus, the facades must integrate a combination of closed-off black boxes, large expanses of glazing, areas with changing daylight needs and installations with specialized fresh air supply. The lightweight panel construction made it possible to adapt the façade pattern’s varying degree of perforation specifically to the underlying functions. In addition, the variation in openings, perforation and bend gives each volume its own expression, highlighting its content and meaning within the overall composition.