Experimentarium Science Center / CEBRA

North-East View © CEBRA

Architect: CEBRA
Location: Tuborg Havnevej 7, Hellerup, DK
Client: Experimentarium
Area: Approximately 30.000 m2 modernization and extension
Program: Center for Natural Science and Technology
Competition Year: 2011
Completion Year: 2015

After placing first in the design competition to transform an old mineral water bottling plant into a Science Center, CEBRA will move forward with the adapted proposal upon receipt of a substantial donation from the The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation. The original building will be restored to serve as an interactive national center for science, technology and culture and house the Experimentarium’s diverse exhibition and education activities for the neighboring communities. CEBRA’s solution of layering a new expression on the historic entity brings science to the forefront while acknowledging contextual cues that create links back to its surroundings.

More about the project after the break.

Concept © CEBRA

Complete with an exhibition hall, rooftop exhibition space, a botanical roof garden, a flexible stage for an audience of 400 people, and accommodations for learning, innovation and research, the 320,000 sqf project is organized with great attention to crafting an extensive internal synergy that defines the dynamic and active interior.

Atrium © CEBRA

As Experimentarium develops its educational and research platforms, the building must offer flexible accommodations to meet evolving programmatic demands. With this in mind, exhibition areas can be expanded, reduced or altered without compromising flow and functionality. “The result is a new strong image in a high technology and sustainable form, where the architectural expression supports and communicates the future Experimentarium’s mission and content,” explained CEBRA.

North View © CEBRA

As the project that must both embrace the historic existing building while contributing a contemporary look, the expression of the façades are a crucial element of the project. The exterior treatment serves a double purpose as they offer performative functions for the building and provide a distinctive visual identity for the institution.

In selected spots, large expanses of glass are inserted into the volume’s ‘boxes’ in order to provide views into and out of the building. These viewing boxes emphasize a dialogue between the architecture and the surrounding urban space as the staggered boxes ‘push’ outward to offer a high degree of external visibility.

Covered in perforated aluminium sheets, the facade treatment of the boxes responds to internal needs by varying patterns and degrees of perforation. As such, each box obtains an individual expression despite being covered in the same type of material.

In order to underline the idea of the future resting on the foundation set by history, the building’s formal language creates an illusion of the old bottling plant as the stable supporter for Experimentarium’s new and dynamic building structure.