Sky's the limit for Kopernik Center

An architectural studio from the Silesia region, Rar-2 Laboratorium Architektury, has signed an agreement with Warsaw authorities to provide complete project documentation and tender specifications for the Kopernik Science Center in Warsaw.

In the next five months Rar-2 will prepare the construction project, whereas the specification will be completed at the beginning of next year. The construction is due to start in 2007, after a tender to select the contractor takes place. Kopernik Science Center will be opened at the end of 2008.

At the end of last year a project by Rar-2 won an architectural competition for the Kopernik Science Center. Located on the Vistula river bank, near the Świętokrzyski Bridge, in its shape the center will resemble the nearby buildings of the Warsaw University Library (BUW) and Elektrownia Powiśle.

"This is an example of architecture which uses landscape as the design tool. The building's structure imitates nature," explains Jan Kubec from Rar-2. The focal point of the center will be a planetarium which, illuminated from inside at dark, will stand as a significant element of Warsaw's panorama seen from the other side of the river. The two-storey building will have an exhibition area of some 7,000 sqm, where displays for all of the scientific disciplines will be open for visitors. Apart from that, it will offer three cafés, an audience hall, a conference center for 250 people, and offices, all on an area of 15,000 sqm. The center will be surrounded by an Explorers' Park.

"I hope that this project will start an era of investment on the river bank," said the chief architect of Warsaw, Michał Borowski.

He added that the Vistula is probably the only river in Europe whose course and banks remain unchanged and largely undeveloped. "This is the first project in modern times that is developed so close to the river."

Borowski also stressed that the City of Warsaw as the investor can and will have a say in the project. "The cooperation with the investor is great," says Jan Kubec. "Mr Borowski has had numerous cosmetic remarks, which are very useful." So far the main fears concerned the elevation.

The investment cost of the Kopernik Science Center is zł.80 million, which will be financed by the City of Warsaw. An additional zł.67 million, subsidized by the Ministry of Education, will be spent on the exhibition part . It is expected that some 500,000 people will visit the center annually.