The Copernicus Science Centre building is being erected on the bank of the Vistula River in the very heart of Warsaw (the corner of Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie and Zajęcza streets, above the Wisłostrada tunnel). In June 2008 the tender for the construction of our building was completed. The winning company was Warbud S.A. - one of Poland’s largest construction companies. In July 2008, we celebrated the putting first spade in the ground at the construction site and the building has started.

You can watch online the construction of our Centre here…
Pictures from the construction site are available here…

The opening of the first module of the building, together with exhibitions: On the move, Humans and the Environment, LightZone, Roots of Civilization, Younglings is planned for the half of 2010, and a second module with Youth Gallery - in the end of 2010. 

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.

SEE THE COPERNICUS SCIENCE CENTRE BUILDING