The Copernicus Science Centre building will be erected on the bank of the Vistula River in the very heart of Warsaw. The site is at the corner of Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie and Zajęcza streets, above the Wisłostrada tunnel.
The building design was developed by young Polish architects from the firm RAr-2 in Ruda Śląska, who won an architectural competition for the Copernicus Science Centre facility in December 2005. As an important statement in the ongoing development of modern architecture, their project has garnered many accolades – the building design is often noted to be superbly suited to the surrounding landscape, enhancing and underscoring the character of the Vistula embankments.

The Centre complex will comprise:

• a two-story building with total floor-space of 15 000 m2, to house permanent and temporary exhibitions, laboratories and workshops, a conference Centre, cafes and restaurants, plus office space and a distinctive rooftop garden
• a garage and a workshop on a subterranean level
• a multimedia planetarium housed within an intriguing boulder-shaped building, including an observation deck
• a surrounding Discovery Park, including open-air experimentation stations, an outdoor art gallery, and an amphitheatre.
  

The team invited to contribute to further refining the Copernicus Science Centre design includes artists, specialists on state-of-the-art construction technologies (such as erecting walls of clay), "living green façade" and rooftop garden designers, geologists, landscape architects, and natural ventilation experts.