Inspiria Science Centre Norway, Norwegian Architecture, Sarpsborg Building

Inspiria Science Centre, Norway

Graalum Building – design by AART architects

8 Nov 2011

Inspiria Science Centre

Location: Graalum, near Sarpsborg, Norway

Design: AART architects

Inspiria Science Centre that, among others, uses the architecture as a branding tool to increase young people’s interest in science.

Danish architects inaugurate visionary science centre.

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The centre is designed as one of the most advanced science centres in Northern Europe and is part of a long-term plan to make knowledge the most important asset of the Østfold Region in Norway. This ambitious plan is reflected in the architectural aspiration, as the trifold form is designed as a communications platform merging the environment, energy and health.

The interior program includes 70 interactive exhibitions, workshops and the most advanced planetarium in Northern Europe and Inspiria Science Centre is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors every year, mainly school trips, families and tourists. Long-term plans to include the community will be addressed by annually offering over 40,000 students of the area a free trip to visit the venue.

A vibrant communications platform

Inspiria Science Centre combines communication and architecture into an inspiring and eventful whole, in order to provide new spaces for learning and supports the idea of sustainability as a window of opportunity to increase the quality of life between humans and the environment. The building is thus designed as a passive house in close contact with both nature and the users, as glass enclosed wings extend from the focal circular atrium creating a dynamic heart to the building.

By merging the architecture and the science centre’s focus on the environment, energy and health, Inspiria Science Centre is designed as a vibrant communications platform with a clear narrative. The narrative permeates the building design, as the trifold form symbolises nature’s cyclical repetitions and spiral forms, which blend with the technology cycle expressed in the universal power of the circular basic form. The goal has thus been to create a striking building, which in itself constitutes an identity-laden branding of Inspiria Science Centre by uniting the activities of the science centre into a single concept.

A unique fundraising process

Furthermore, Inspiria Science Centre is a unique example of how the public sector and the business community can come together and raise funds to enhance young people’s interest in science. The architecture has thus been a significant icon in the branding and fundraising process of the €28.5 million science centre. For example, the science centre has been granted €5 million in subvention from the Norwegian Government and €7 million in subvention from the business community.

Besides, the science centre has received subsidies from the government-owned corporation Enova that promotes environmentally friendly redistribution of energy consumption in the Norwegian construction sector. As Trond Giske, the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, has stated, it is also quite unique that 18 municipalities have gathered so significantly and engaged themselves in the project, while the business community has granted far more funds than in usual construction projects.

Inspiria Science Centre Grålum – Building Information

Project: 1st prize in open international architecture competition 6.500m2 science centre in Graalum near Sarpsborg in Norway

Client: Borg Næring og Eiendom A/S
Architect: AART architects A/S
Landscape architect: AART architects A/S
Interior design: AART architects A/S
Experience design: Expology
Engineer Cowi: A/S
Electro engineer: Yit A/S
HWS engineer: Multiconsult
Address: Bjørnstadveien 16, 1712 Grålum
Year: 2007-11
Size: 6,500 sqm
Construction costs: €28.5 million

Photographs: Adam Mørk

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